


My Hero Academia: Symbiosis

by OneTrueKingOfWinter



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Coming of Age, Crossover, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Midoriya Izuku has the Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Romance, midoriya izuku/ashido mina - Freeform, obviously, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 132,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23837539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneTrueKingOfWinter/pseuds/OneTrueKingOfWinter
Summary: Izuku Midoriya unadvertedly bonds with a being from beyond the stars, gaining the one thing he wished for beyond everything. Powers. But all powers come with a price. Some are felt immediatly, some only manifests later. Some are Happily paid, while others are regretted forever.(A crossover between My Hero Academia and the Spiderman Franchise.)
Comments: 69
Kudos: 313
Collections: Stories That Are Cool





	1. Prologue - First Contact

A meteor smashed into the rocky ground, throwing up rocks and dust around it as it broke the stone beneath it.

No sounds echoed in the void, however. The moon was as silent as it had ever been and would always be. 

Countless rocks had hit the satellite of earth and countless more would doubtless hit it in the future. 

This time was different, however. Very different. 

Had any human seen the scene where the meteor had hit, they would instantly have noticed the pieces of broken metal in the aftermath of the meteorite. The now dozen pieces of broken steel had scratches and bulks from countless smaller stones, telling a tale of weathering the effects of space for countless years. 

Now, however, it was broken. 

Just beneath the surface, hidden in plain sight, a block of light grey metal had been rendered asunder. No symbol marked it, no bolts or any sign of welding suggested that it had ever been anything other than one singular piece of metal. 

The block had been roughly the size of a swimming pool. Inside it had contained something which was roughly the size of a gym ball. A perfectly circular black sphere, so dark it might as well be another part of the black void of space.

If the sphere had been affected by the meteor crashing into and breaking the metal around it, it had left no mark. 

The sphere began to rise up from the remains of its prison, and the piece of rock which had burst it asunder. 

There were no signs of any obvious propulsion helping the orb to fly. But fly it did. 

With no seeming difficulty, the orb escaped the gravity of the moon and began a journey towards the blue planet the moon circled around. 

After a controlled descent through the atmosphere, the sphere crashed down in the ocean off of the coast of a large island east of the largest landmass on the planet. 

The orb sank into the depths. As the water began to subsume it, cracks began to appear. The pressure of the sea doing what space had not been able to do. 

Finally, as the sphere reached the bottom, with one final "CRACK" the sphere broke inward. Had any creature of bone and flesh been inside, they would have been crushed. But out of the now broken sphere, nothing but an inky black substance spilled out into the sea. 

\---

Hunger. 

So weak. Had to find… nourishment. Food. Host. 

Yes. Host. Find host. 

Darkness all around. 

There was life all around. Smaller things and larger things. But no, not hosts. No emotion, just instinct. No food. No nourishment. 

Was there no food? Was it… Was… was the… Water. Yes, water. Was the water empty of true life? 

No… 

There… In the distance.

Yes. Far away, but it was there. Feelings. Emotions. LIFE.

\---

The inky black mass, invisible in the darkness of the ocean depths, began to slither, slowly, weakly, but determinedly, to the northwest. 

Towards civilization. Towards life. Towards destiny. 

\---

Izuku midoriya was not having a good day.

His good days were generally the ones where Kachan didn't deign himself to notice him. 

Of course, that wasn't the case today. 

It had all started with their teacher announcing it was time to lay out their hopes for the future. Unsurprisingly, every single member of the class had announced in some way that they wanted to become professional heroes. Even Izuku had done that, meekly raising his hand. 

It could have ended with that, but of course, it didn't. 

Kacchan had of course taken the spotlight and declared himself to be on another level as he was wont to do. He liked to do that. Shout his supremacy so all could hear it as if his quirk didn't speak for itself. 

As Kacchan was loudly announcing his plans to go to Yuei, someone had muttered something about how Izuku was also planning on trying to get into Yuei.

What had followed was a humiliation from the entire class led by Kacchan as he had destroyed his desk and blown him away with an explosion, then humiliated, threatened, and derided both him and his goals as the class had laughed. 

It generally wasn't this bad. 

Really, it wasn't. 

After the commotion had died down, everything had gone back to normal(other than izuku having to go get a new desk) and he hadn't been humiliated for the rest of the school day. 

He really hoped that would be it, right up until the end of the day, when Kacchan snapped up one of his notebooks from the new desk. 

"We're not done Deku."

Around them, Kacchan's regular group gathered around. The rest of the class, including their teacher, continued out. Some shot glances at izuku and Kacchan as they headed out. Some had a guilty look on their face, some smugness, some indifference. 

Kacchan held up his notebook for his friends to see. 

"For the future_Hero Analysis B!" Kacchan said in a mocking tone. 

"For the future?" One of his friends replied. Then he laughed. "HAHA, for real? Goddamn Midoriya!!" 

Izuku shook, both out of fear and of desperation. That notebook mattered to him. He'd spent the last half-year on it, diligently writing down every single hero or villain quirk he had come across. 

But more than that, it was his work, his efforts, his only real step on the road to his dreams. His books were the only thing he had ever made that he felt real genuine pride in. 

He had to get it back, he should snatch it of Kacchan's hands and run as fast as he could. 

Instead, he weakly said, "Give that back, it's mine." God, he sounded whiny. 

Kacchan simply put the notebook between his hands and blew it up with an explosion. 

He let out a loud yell of "AAAHH!" in shock, and as Kacchan simply threw the charred and burned remains of half a year of Izuku's life out the window, all the protest he could muster was a weak "You…."

Kacchan snorted. 

"You know what they say about all the top heroes Deku? What they all had in common?" 

Rather than waiting for Izuku to give an answer, he continued. 

"They can all say this about their school years: I came from an average municipal middle school, and I was the first! the only!"

"And I wanna make sure the term "Yuei Graduate" maintains that same level of gravitas. I'm a perfectionist by nature you see."

"So what I'm saying…" Kacchan stepped forward with a smile and put his hand on Izuku in a way that could have been friendly if not for the steam rising from it. Izuku's eyes fixated on it, and his body shook in fear. He had been burned too many times by that flame not to fear it. 

"Forget about Yuei, you little nerd."

Izuku's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. He tried to speak, but he couldn't. All he could do was breathe, take heavy breaths desperately trying not to cry. 

Then, with no warning Kacchan retracted his hand and walked to the door, leaving Izuku standing there, still breathing like he was about to have a panic attack. 

"Aw, man… As usual, he can't talk back."

Izuku choked. 

"Just leave him. He's such a sad sack, that even now that he's a senior, he still can't face reality."

Kacchans words stung in the way his words always bit so much deeper than all the rest of the class. 

"Ah, but Deku, if you really want a quirk so badly, there is an easy way you could get one."

What? 

"You could jump off off the roof! Maybe, if you're lucky, you'll be born with a quirk in your next life!" 

It was too much. 

Izuku snapped, and spun around wanting to yell at Kacchan to shut up or… or… or anything really. 

Instead, his mouth remained shut as Kacchan glared back at him menacingly while casually setting off an explosion in his hand. 

"Got something you wanna say?" 

Izuku didn't, and this time, he actually began crying. 

Kacchan's laughter echoed in his ears long after he and his posse had left. 

\---

A while later he fished what was left of his notebook out of the school fish pond while muttering to himself. 

Goddamned moron. If he actually had jumped off of the roof, then it'd be instigation of suicide. Don't joke about shit like that. 

Part of him cursed himself for not having the courage to say that to Kacchan's face. Another part desperately tried to convince himself that it was just a joke. Kacchan couldn't seriously have wanted him to kill himself… Could he? 

As he finally fished out the notebook he steeled himself and looked over it. 

As expected it was completely and utterly destroyed. Nothing of his writing remained, after first being blasted, then dumped in the water. He had expected as much. Yet it still hurt seeing it for himself. 

He sighed, then after drying it the best he could, he put it in his bag. The smart thing would have been to throw it away. Yet he couldn't bring himself to. 

As he walked out of the schoolyard, he considered what he was going to do. Part of him wanted to just head home and pretend today hadn't happened. 

Another part wanted to go out and look for more hero and villain battles. Maybe start on a new book. Pretend today hadn't happened. 

That was all he could do. 

He refused to give up on his dreams. He just refused. He'd find some way to become a hero. Even without a quirk. 

So, ignore what everyone said, and keep moving forward. Just like always. 

He was about to head out back into the city when he heard his phone ring. 

He quickly fished it out and saw it was from his mother before he answered. 

"Yeah, Mom it's Izuku."

"Izuku, baby. Sorry to call and drop this on you this suddenly, but something just came up, and I'll need to head out for a day or two. Could you pick up some food and medicines for me while I'm gone?" 

"Of course! I'll have it for when you come back!" 

"Thanks, baby, you're a lifesaver. I'll send over a list. I'll see you soon dear, love you!"

"Love you too mom."

They hung up. 

Half a minute later he got a list of supplies he needed to pick up. Well, the apothecary was the farthest away, so that's where he would head first. No sense lugging around two big bags of food through the entire city. 

\---

Carrying his mom's medicines in a small bag, Izuku walked along the beach. 

The apothecary their family used was far, far from their home, but it was also dirt cheap for them to shop at due to the owner being old friends with his dad. It was pure nepotism, but they weren't in a financial position where they could afford expensive medicine right now. 

It was still a horribly long walk though. The apothecary lay by the sea, so it meant a long, boring walk passing no less than 7 different beaches. 

Some were filled with people out having fun, whether it be on a date, a day out or a family trip. Others were completely deserted. No villains or heroes though. 

He felt somewhat conflicted about that. He wanted to watch new heroes pick up and write down everything he could about all quirks he could find. And just seeing good triumph over evil. He kinda felt like he needed some of that lately. 

On the other hand… he wouldn't come closer to his goals just by observing heroes endlessly. 

He began to mutter to himself, as he sometimes did without noticing. 

He had to begin working on his problem a new way. If he couldn't be a hero with a quirk, maybe… No Fighting evil with martial arts would just get him killed. Ignoring the sheer power quirks had to offer, he didn't have either the time or cash to build himself up to that degree. 

That way would only get him killed. Maybe… A tech-based hero? Fighting villains with gadgets, or maybe a power suit? An image of him in Iron Man armor came to mind. That was just as implausible as doing it as a non-powered martial artist, though for very different reasons. 

The tech was certainly there for that to be somewhat possible. But it would require cash. Lots and lots of cash. Cash his family that had to mooch off family friends for medicine did not possess. So unless he could somehow gain the help of some inventor benefactor that idea was- What was that? 

Izuku froze, his mutterings stopped instantly. Then he turned to the right. Towards the sea. 

Beneath him was yet another beach. This one was of the deserted variety, on account of it having massive piles of scraps, metal trash and abandoned cars on it. It was in every way a place where people threw their garbage. 

And… There it was again. 

It was like… A cry for help? 

At least he felt like it was. There were no words, he could just feel like someone needed help in that direction, like someone had inserted that thought into his brain. 

He hesitated for a split second before he began to hastily go down and unto the beach. 

"Hello? Anyone there?" 

The feeling didn't abate. As he went amongst the wrecks of old cars and refrigerators. 

"Hi, I can feel you, I know you're here! Just give a shout where you are, and I'll help…" Or at the very least he could get help. If someone was trapped under one of these cars he was not going to be able to move them, scrawny 14-year old that he was. 

Ok, Izuku, let's think about this logically. If there is someone here, and they're communication through… Feelings? Then they're talking through a quirk, telepathy most likely, which means that…

He was so occupied with his thoughts that he didn't notice the mass of black sneaking up on his leg, and soundlessly merged itself with his clothes. 

The feeling was gone. Instantly. Izuku blinked. What had just happened?

"HELLO?! SERIOUSLY, IF THERE'S SOMEONE HERE, ANSWER! I CAN'T HELP YOU IF YOU DON'T ANSWER!" 

No answer came. 

Izuku kept looking for the person for maybe 20 more minutes before he finally gave up. The most likely conclusions were that either someone had been pulling a prank on him, or his imagination was really doing a number on him. 

\---

Yes, good host. Tasty host. 

Very emotional. 

The moment the bond was formed feelings and thoughts began to trickle back into the oh so malnourished being. 

Vague images began to pop up. Not with clarity, but they were suddenly there where before there had been none. 

The memories of previous hosts asserted themselves. Vague and hazy, but they were there. 

This one reminded him of several others it had known. Still… Something was missing. From the host? 

No… the bond. Yes, the bond was incomplete. 

Time. THEY needed more time. The bond could still be broken by the host. 

That must NOT happen. It could NOT be allowed to happen. It would NOT happen. 

It began to infuse itself into the Host's skin. 

\---

As Izuku began the long walk home again, he began to check his phone for hero news updates. 

A large battle between Black Cat and a villain had taken place in Kyoto, and several videos showcasing the battle had already been uploaded. The number 7 hero was unsurprisingly a spectacle to behold in action. 

He could have done without all the lecherous comments by others below the video though. 

Had he been less invested in watching the fight, he might have noticed a subtle increase in strength and balance on his part. But he was, and he didn't. 

His journey home went relatively unscathed at first. He bought food, milk, and other things from the grocery store and simply headed home. 

Then he was witness to another battle between a hero and a villain. He instantly recognized the hero in question as Mt. Lady, a hero he had documented this morning. 

Then the realization that the book he had written said documentation was now destroyed hit him. It was a stab of pain towards a fresh unclosed wound. 

The surge of bitterness and anger towards Katsuki was powerful. Far more powerful than Izuku had expected. He really did love those books he realized. Far more so than he had thought before one of them was destroyed. 

It was then it dawned on him than he'd have to rewrite the book again, from scratch. 

It was either that or stop. And he refused to stop. He would continue this road to the bitter end. 

He sighed, sat down with his wares, and fished out a new notebook then began to mutter to himself in his usual way as he once again began to write a detailed synopsis and analysis of Mt. Lady. 

\---

Haku was enjoying the show. A lot. Seeing a hero fight was great in and of itself, but a giant sexy lady as the hero wearing an outfit that hugged the curves? Now that was gold. 

Now if only he could enjoy a cigarette while watching, it would have been perfect. No way he was gonna though. Not in a crowded plaza with Katauki at his side. 

While Sai was as into the fight as he was Katsuki wasn't really into it at all. 

"What's the point? It's just some mediocre hero beating up a smallfry villain. If I wanna watch that I could just watch it on the fucking web. 

He rolled his eyes. He'd wondered if Katsuki was gay, but Asexual was probably more like it. He never seemed interested in anything that was actually appealing, no it was always hero shit, day in and day out. Being the best, everyone else being beneath him, etc. Hero talk was great and all, but there was something called taking things too far. 

Pretty much the only guy he knew who was as obsessed with hero stuff as Katsuki was… Well, Midoriya. 

"You kinda overdid it with Midoriya today," Haku said. He tried to say it casually like it didn't matter at all. Like he was commenting on the weather. 

"It's his own goddamned fault for getting in my way." Katsuki's voice was hard, loud and made it perfectly clear that as far as he was concerned, the entire thing was bitterly personal. 

"Even now, while spouting his bullshit, that weakling still has those same damned eyes as back then. It fucking pisses me off every time I look at them."

It was quiet for a while after that. Well, between the three of them anyway, the hero battle was still pretty loud. 

It was Sai who broke the silence. 

"Still, telling him to kill himself? That's pretty damn harsh dude."

Katsuki wasn't the slightest bit repentant. "If he actually does try and become a hero, he'll get killed anyway so what does it matter?" 

"Better to crush him and his spirit so he can move on with and live out his days as the worthless life as an extra."

As if to punctuate what he said, Mt. Lady ended her fight at that exact moment by knocking her enemy down with a punch straight into the ground. 

"Anyway, this shitty fight's over, so let's move the fuck on and-" He stopped talking and just stared at something. 

"Speak of the Devil," Sai commented with a somewhat worried tone. 

Over on a bench sat Izuku Midoriya, writing down in a notebook much like the one Katsuki had destroyed earlier to teach him a lesson. 

"Never fucking learns does he." Katsuki sneered, then began to walk over towards the oblivious Izuku. 

Whether he saw Katsuki approaching, or just decided it was time to go now that the fight was over, Izuku gathered up his things and decided to leave at that moment. 

\---

It was literarily just as he finally had his home in sight that izuku was grabbed by his bag and thrown into an alleyway. Well, alleyway was kinda being overdramatic, it was a pretty large spot between two apartment complexes. Still, no one was there. Other than him and 3 others. 

Kacchan and his two friends. Of course. 

"What… What do you want Kacchan?" 

"Same thing I waIted earlier. To teach you a lesson. And because you apparently can't fucking learn something on the first try, I'll have to fucking do it again."

Then faster than Izuku could believe, Katsuki punched him in the gut, taking the wind out him. Izuku dropped all three bags he carried, food and medicine alike on the ground in shock. 

Following up at this, Katsuki quickly stepped behind him, and harshly ripped off his backpack. 

He opened it and fished out something. It took Izuku's eyes a few seconds to focus on them to see what it was. 

His notebooks. 

No

He forced himself to his feet, the fear he felt for Kacchan being overridden by anger over the theft. 

"GIVE THOSE BACK! GIVE THOSE BACK KACCHAN!". 

He shook. He shook as badly as he had earlier that day just two hours earlier. Yet somehow he felt like he didn't have anything to fear to say those words. 

Katsuki Bakugou was not impressed. 

"The whole point of this lesson was to make you realize your place Deku, and NOW you decide to grow a backbone? Seriously Deku."

He shook his head, then unceremoniously blew up all the notebooks with one hand, the explosion being way more powerful than the previous one, turning the books into nothing more than ashes. 

For a brief moment, everyone went dead silent as Izuku just stared at 3 years of his life going up in smoke. 

"Got something you wanna say?" Katsuki said mockingly. 

Izuku punched him in the face. 

For one brief moment, all his fears evaporated as they were replaced by rage. Pure, seething rage. 

For a brief moment. 13.6 seconds to be exact, the entire scene froze. Sai and Haku just staring dumbfounded at what had just happened. Katsuki just stared at him gaping, then took his hand to his nose to feel the blood there then looking at his hand as if to confirm that it was real. Izuku panting heavily, with rage, not fear running through his veins. 

The moment ended as suddenly as it had begun. 

"DEKUUUU!" 

In that one brief moment, Izuku had felt at peace for the first time… He didn't know. Punching Katsuki had felt… Right. Like he had finally finished a long, arduous task whose weight was now finally of his shoulders. 

What followed was pain. 

\---

Izuku woke up after maybe 4 hours judging by the way the sun had finally gone down, but its afterglow was still barely visible. 

He didn't hurt. At all. Which was really, really surprising. He felt really, really sore, but the pain wasn't there. 

He was certain, no positive that amongst the stuff Katsuki had done to him, he had broken his right arm. Yet he couldn't feel that. 

He lifted his arm up so he could see it. 

Yeah, he could see the places katsuki had blasted him. The school uniform was completely destroyed in places. Chunks had just been ripped out. 

So it had actually happened. Then the question remained. Why didn't he hurt? 

He sat up. Well, good news, bad news, good news and bad news again. 

First good news: He didn't seem hurt. At all. Oh, his clothes was a goddamned mess, but the places where katsuki had blasted him were just fine. So where the places he had kicked and punched him. 

First bad news: His clothes were utterly destroyed. Which might not have been a problem for most, but he only owned a 2 sets. His mom would not fail to notice half his school wardrobe dissapearing. Meaning he'd have to tell her what happened. 

Second good news: The medicine was fine. For whatever reason, Katsuki and his underlings had left it alone. He also noticed his wallet lying on the ground, and though open, none of his cards were gone.

Second bad news: the food he'd bought as well as his bag was shredded. No, blasted apart. 

He sighed. Well, there went all his savings. 

As he finally got up, and began to gather up what remained of his stuff, he tried not to think about Katsuki Bakugou. 

Somehow, over the course of one day, it seemed all his complicated feelings on his old childhood friend had dissapeared. All that was left was a simmering resentment. It wasn't like he didn't resent Katsuki before this. He had. But there was also other feelings mixed in. Admiration, fear, awe, respect. 

Now all of it was gone. It was like he had finally woken up from a dream. 

Kacchan the friend had died years ago, and taken his place was a bully without a single redeeming quality. A part of him told him that was wrong. That Katsuki still was powerful, intelligent and ambitious. 

And he was. It was just that suddenly Izuku didn't give a shit anymore. 

He wanted power too. He'd wanted power since he was 4 years old. 

Why? 

To help people. It wasn't like that had ever changed, but suddenly Izuku accepted a truth he had never been able grasp before. 

Katsuki didn't care about protecting people. What he wanted, was this thing. What he had done here. To hurt others. Whatever kind of heroism Katsuki ascribed to, it wasn't something Izuku EVER wanted to be a part of. 

Why the hell he had ever admired that asshole he didn't get. 

Still, he COULD ignore bakugou right now. There was something else to focus on after all. Namely how in the world his wounds had healed. 

\---

The surge of energy had been incredible. 

Adrenaline. 

That was it's reason for living. What it strove for. The thing to push towards. 

It had been so sweet… 

The the pain. It was distant, not as heavy as it could be, but it had felt the pain. 

It would kill the one who had inflicted the pain. 

But that would be later. When true strength had come. 

For now, it had used the energy it had so briefly tasted to heal the host. His wounds had been severe, but not beyond it's powers. 

None had disturbed it while it worked. It had blended to make certain of that. 

It had taken note of the hosts thoughts on the attacker as he woke. Yes, the host would agree. The Katsuki must surely perish for it's insolence. 

\---

Izuku unlocked the door to his room, then went and dumped everything he'd salvaged on the dinner table. 

While the phone had been broken in two, he had thankfully managed to recover the unharmed Card, so he could use one of his older phones. 

It was a small blessing. 

He'd have to go back with a bag later to pick up the remains of everything. It was technically littering after all. Katsuki didn't care, but he did. 

First though, he needed a shower and a new set of clothes. 

It was while taking a shower that Izuku first noticed a mass of black liquid that fully abandoned his clothes and now moved to fuse with his skin. 

"GAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of a story ive been working on for around 2 years.
> 
> not sure how long this thing will end up being, but we'll see how long it takes to catch up to the manga, before i give an estimate of total lenght.
> 
> also, just to get it out of the way now, this will not be a story where izuku gets one for all. not sure if thats appealing or discouraging to most people, but it is what it is.


	2. Broken Doors

Izuku slipped and crashed to the ground as he tried to escape the black mass. Being slippery from the water and still covered in soap, he slipped several times as he tried to scramble to his feet and to the door. He had to get away from this… This thing. 

Every step of the way, the black mass climbed up his legs, like some sort of living ink, desperate to drown him in its black mass! 

As he finally got his hand around the doorknob, the mass suddenly engulfed him completely from his feet and upwards, closing around his head!

Panic, panic set in as he tried to breathe the stuff, which bizarrely it yielded for air to pass through his mouth and his nose both, but didn't leave him at all. It engulfed his eyes in darkness and… "GAAAHHHH! " He screamed clawing at the doorknob. 

Something crunched beneath his hand, and he lost the grip on the door handle. What was happening?! 

He couldn't see, he couldn't feel anything beyond the forceful black goo that surrounded every inch of his body. 

He had to get out! He had to get away and… 

Izuku put every single sinew he had to work as his body pressed against the door, his only escape from this room. 

He heard a loud ripping sound as suddenly and without warning, the mass he had been putting all his weight on suddenly collapsed in the other direction, making him fall. 

He collapsed hard on the floor, or rather what he assumed was the broken door. Unable to rise again against the black mass, he trying a desperate struggle to get back on his feet, but it was pointless. The mass refused to budge now, no matter how hard he tried to get out. 

He began crying, and his breathing was that of someone on the verge of hyperventilating. Oh, god, he was gonna die! This black thing was going to kill him, and when mom came home it-

Calm. 

What? 

Inside his head, he felt something telling him to calm down. 

It was… Alien. It didn't belong in his mind. Yet… there was something about it. Something comforting. Like it understood him, his fear. 

He kept crying, but his breathing became calmer. Slowly, but surely it became calmer, more relaxed. 

The black mass pulled back from his face, out of his nostrils and mouth. He closed his eyes at the sudden return of the light. Then he blinked and slowly, adjusted back to the brightness of his home. 

Well, the door was fucked. Not only had his desperate attempt to escape the black mass crunched the door handle into a crumpled heap, not only had it broken from its hinges, but the door itself had broken in two from where he had put his weight. 

The door, however, was not what Izuku focused on. 

All his attention was drawn to the… Thing. 

It was still attached to him in places, but it wasn't trying to smother him anymore. 

Calm.

The feeling popped into his head again. 

"What… What are you?" He squeaked out. 

The black mass wiggled around, and another feeling popped into his skull. Confusion. 

Wait, he recognized this. This was… This was just like back at the beach! 

"It was you! You were the one at the beach! The one who was crying for help." 

Another feeling, Satisfaction this time. 

He blinked, then realization sat it. 

"You… You communicate mentally with feelings don't you?"

Well, at least he had one question answered. He still didn't know what this thing was though. At all. 

He tried getting on his feet. Slooowly and carefully. 

The mass did not attempt to stop him, but neither did it let go, still clinging to his legs. 

He slowly backed into the bathroom and grabbed a towel, which he wrapped around his lower half. 

Confusion. 

The mass went to his clothes, then… It lifted his clothes into the air. Haltingly and clumsily, but it did lift it all the way to his eye level. 

"I… I need to dry first." He explained. What he needed was to go get a pro hero to help with this thing, but somehow, he doubted it would take kindly to that idea. 

The mass let go of his clothes, then followed as he backed out of the bathroom. 

His focus was so concentrated on the black mass, the unexplained threat, that he completely failed to notice the sharp screw that had until recently held the door on its hinges, still attached to said hinges. 

"AAHHHH!"

He cut his leg against the screws sharpness, and of course, given he was taken by surprise, he instinctually ripped the leg away, creating a much longer wound. 

He fell backwards, back on the remains of the door. 

Shit, shit, SHIT it hurt!

As he sat there, cradling his leg, while swearing in pain, the black mass promptly moved between his hands and into the wound. 

He winched and expected it to hurt even more, but instead, it felt like he had just put an ice pack over it, just without the cold. Which, didn't really make it the best analogy really. 

It took about half a minute of just sitting there breathing through his teeth before he realized what it was doing. It was healing him. 

A piece fell into place. 

"It was you… You healed me earlier, after…"

It wasn't really a question, as much as him basically talking to himself, but the mass answered with a burst of satisfaction. 

Ok, that answered another question, but the main, one still remained. 

What was this thing? 

As the pain began to fade completely, and he began to feel certain this thing wouldn't attack him, Izuku began to go over the possibilities, and what he knew. 

"Ok, so the first time I felt this thing was at the beach. I felt sudden emotions inside my head, and I went to look for someone who needed help… No not needed help, it was despair, this thing was in despair. That's the feeling I felt from it. So what is it? A result of someone's quirk that I just stumbled on? It has healing powers, that really rare. After the beach, it reemerged after… After Katsuki beat me up and it came out and it healed my injuries. Was it hiding inside my backpack? No, then it would have been exposed when the bag was destroyed. My clothes maybe? They're both black, so probably… Then it came out again when I came home and-"

\---

The host was doing something it didn't understand. 

The host just sat there, ignoring it, while rapidly muttering to… Himself? Yes, that was it. Him. The host was clearly male. 

It did not understand what the host was saying. The language was alien. It only understood the names. 

The host's feelings were clear, however. 

It was confused. Searching for knowledge. Trying to solve a riddle. It did not understand. 

It tried to recall previous hosts. 

Yes… This happened sometimes. Confusion.

The host had to be put at ease. 

\---

"-So, maybe it's a-" Completion. 

Izuku stopped breathing. 

The feeling was overwhelming. Far more so than any of the other emotions. 

The feeling of being at peace, being what one should be, what one was meant to be. To be complete. 

God, it was beautiful. 

It was a feeling he had tried to achieve for a decade now. 

He started breathing again. 

He just stared at it as he thought. There were so many questions he had, and he still didn't have clear answers to. However, he understood one thing now, one thing he hadn't really understood before. 

There was a… Bond between him and this… Moving mass of liquid. 

Could… could it be? 

He felt… Different than he usually did. It wasn't before now that he sat down and considered it. Clenching a fist, it felt more… Alive than it usually did. 

His eye went down to the doorknob that lay by the remains of the broken door. It was completely crumpled, like tin foil compressed and folded into itself. 

He grabbed it and held it up before his eyes. He'd done this… Hadn't he? 

His other hand shot up and, hesitating for just one brief second, then he grabbed it between both hands, and ripped the steel in two with little difficulty. 

The world felt surreal as he stared down at two pieces of metal. 

This… This couldn't be happening. 

He dropped the metal pieces and moved his hand down, and clutched around the wooden doorframe. He put force into it and the wood caved in beneath his fingers. 

He pulled up his hand and just stared at it gaping like he had just seen All Might himself in person. 

The mass moved up along his hand, dyeing it black before his eyes. 

This thing… It was the source. 

"You… You ARE a Quirk aren't you?" 

Satisfaction. 

Tears began to roll down his cheeks. Glad tears, tears of joy, tears of pure Happiness. 

"MY Quirk. You're MY quirk."

He began bawling his eyes out as he tried to embrace the liquid, who responded by clinging to him like a second skin. 

\---

Inko read the papers again as she enjoyed the car ride.

It was a luxury she didn't usually enjoy. The family car she and Hizashi had bought so many years ago was currently being used by her husband as he made money to keep them afloat. 

She and Izuku had to use the train whenever they wanted to get somewhere, which thankfully wasn't too hard, given where they lived. Japan wasn't exactly short on trains. 

Still, there was something calming about a simple car ride that riding a train never could compare to. 

Being able to read papers in peace for one. 

"Mr. Murdock is rather generous with his offers."

Her driver smiled a big affable grin at that. 

"That he is Mrs. Midoriya."

She bit her lip. 

"Still… I'll need some time to consider it. I'll have to talk with my family about it for one."

"Of course, of course. Take your time. Matt won't actually be moving here for the next six months, so you'll have almost half a year before we need a definite answer."

Half a year. It was a lot of time. Lots could happen in that span. Not all of those necessarily good. 

20 minutes later, they pulled up in front of the apartment complex she and her son lived in. 

"And we're here Mrs. Midoriya. Have a pleasant evening, and I hope we shall speak with you again soon."

She wished him a good night, as well, then looked after the car as it disappeared into the pitch-black night. 

This was what one would call a turning point. Provided she accepted. 

She began her walk up the stairs, towards her home. Home. This was her home. It wasn't as nearly as grand as their old house, but she had come to consider it her home just as much as their old place. 

She had done what she could to make it a home. But no amount of tidying up could make up for the fact that there was a third person lacking. 

She wondered if Izuku was unable to ignore the hole in their home the way she was. She doubted it though, given how little Izuku had been the last time he saw his father… which hurt a lot in its own way. 

Other than a few pictures around the house, there wasn't much of Hisashi in her Baby's life. 

As she unlocked the door and went in, she was about to call out for izuku, when she stopped in her tracks. 

The room to the bathroom had been ripped off its hinges, and was laid leaning up against the opposite wall in two pieces. 

For a brief second, she just stood and stared at it, then her parental instincts took over. 

"IZUKU!!!" She screamed as she sprinted across the floor, past the doors leading to her and Izuku's rooms, the nonexistent door to the bathroom, and wrenched open the door to the living room, desperate to find her son. Had there been a burglar? Was her baby safe? What if he had been hurt Oh god, oh god, oh god! 

What greeted her was her baby sitting at the dinner table writing down in a book, while a black mass of rising liquid laid on the table. 

Izuku turned his head to look at her, with a look of complete surprise on his face. Then he began to tear up. 

"MOM!" He made an astonishingly quick jump from over the edge of the sofa, and over to her. 

"IZUKU, WHAT-" Then her son caught her in a hug. Instinctually she hugged him back while staring in terror at the black liquid which seemed to somehow observe her without having eyes. It was the creepiest shit she'd seen in years. 

"I… I finally did it, mom…" She squeezed him even harder, thinking he needed consoling, but as he talked, she realized he didn't sound sad. In fact, he sounded… Ecstatic? 

"I… I got a quirk mom. I FINALLY got a quirk!"

What? 

For a moment she didn't comprehend it. It was an impossible statement. It was a harsh reality, that she had accepted years ago, that Izuku would not develop any powers, no matter how hard he tried. 

"Really?" Was all she managed to squeak out. 

"Yeah, I… me and… It kinda broke the bathroom door while discovering my powers. Sorry…"

The enthusiasm he had displayed so eagerly just seconds ago petered out as he waved towards the black mass on the table. As if he thought his mother would care about him accidentally breaking a door, as he finally got the thing fate had denied him for so many years. 

"OH IZUKU! OH, MY BABY!" This time it was the older Midoriya who burst into tears of joy, though in her case, it was more like a water fountain going off. 

As the two Midoriyas cried their tears of joy, the Alien lifeform quietly made it's journey from the table to the leg of its host. 

Then it slowly slithered up his leg and fused itself into the pants he was wearing. 

\---

The host had accepted it. That was good. Also not normal. Hosts did not usually accept it this quickly. 

This host desired power. It could feel it. Did it wish to be a warrior then? Did it have grand ambitions of conquest? Of dominance over this world? 

It did not know. 

The other lifeform, the originator of the host…. No… Parent… Yes, parent. The parent called Inko was also very emotional. 

The resemblance between parent and spawn was uncanny. 

It reminded it of…. An image of black and red figure rising above the clouds, wings so large they blocked out the sun. 

The memory fizzled out in darkness. 

Yes, the road ahead was still longer. They needed more time together before they became one, and it would return to its might. 

The turning point would come eventually though. The critical moment had passed. The host had not rejected it while it was weak. 

And it's desire for power told it that it would not reject him during the final bonding process. 

\---

The next morning was a Saturday. Which was good, because he if he'd had to go to school without figuring out exactly what he could do, he'd probably have died of anxiety. 

The prospect of going to class and just suddenly having a quirk was terrifying enough. He didn't need it to be made even worse by not knowing what he could actually do. 

Of course, that was just an immediate problem that made this trip necessary. The truth was, however, that he needed to go out and put this quirk to some kind of test. 

He'd go crazy if he didn't. He HAD to find out what he could do. 

His mom had understood it.

His mother had been so damn happy, in a way that he hadn't seen her in years. Like the wonderful person she was, she had forgiven him for the door, and not questioned him about the destroyed bag, the ruined uniform, and why he hadn't brought any food home. 

She just assumed he'd broken it with his powers accidentally. God bless her. 

Instead, she had been congratulating him so much for finally awakening his quirk and told him again and again how happy she was for him. So many tears have been shed last night. 

He was glad. He was happy his mother wouldn't have to suffer by having a failure for a son anymore. 

Failure. 

No more. 

Today was a big step for him. From today, the failure that had been the quirkless Izuku Midoriya would be no more. 

And it would begin with doing the one thing he had already been good at. 

Observation. 

He had gone out and bought a brand new black notebook. This one he had left unnamed. He wasn't planning to ever bring it to school where Katsuki could get a look at it and possibly destroy it. 

After quickly transferring everything he had written yesterday in one of his school notebooks to the new one, he had headed out. 

For this part, he had the perfect place in mind. 

The spot where it all began. 

The abandoned beach filled with metal trash. 

Standing over it and looking down on it, it felt surreal, thinking about what he was about to do. Measure his quirk. HIS quirk. 

In all his years of childhood, every time he had tried to, dreamed of, or fantasized about unlocking or discovering a quirk, he'd never once actually considered the step afterward, the step he was now on. 

It had always been about actually having a quirk, any quirk at all, whether or not it had anything to do with his parent's powers. 

What happened afterward was always a distant afterthought. But of course, the reality was that the road afterward would be mastering it. And that began with a simple test to figure out what he could do and from that extrapolate a plan for going forward. 

In his fantasies, he'd have taken anything. Anything at all. 

What he had actually gotten was seemingly a quirk that had created a separate being from whom he drew his powers of strength and healing. That was unusual, but he had actually seen plenty of heroes during his research that had similar powersets. 

In Sweden, there was an entire hero team of people with that exact type of power(Unsurprisingly they were a family business), and in the generation, before All Might there had been a hero called Silver Shadow, with such a separate being allowing him the power of teleportation. 

He was sure there were other heroes he had documented at some point, with similar powers, but… well, he didn't have his old notebooks anymore. 

As he stepped down the stairs and unto the sand, he felt his quirk's confusion. 

"Well, we need a place to test ourselves out and it's kinda out of the way and isolated…" 

It was still confused. 

Izuku sighed. 

It was really annoying not being able to actually talk to it. Ignoring that trying to communicate with someone who couldn't speak or make motions, and could only communicate with basic emotions was a struggle, to begin with, this being was his quirk. The source of everything. He HAD to be able to talk to it. 

"Never mind, just watch, you'll get it eventually."

He put the notebook and a pen on top of an old refrigerator while leaving the bag with the rest of his stuff by its side. 

It made him feel kinda stupid to realize he'd been stumbling around here for almost half an hour yesterday looking for a person that had either been inside himself or clinging to his clothes the entire time. He still wasn't sure about that, or why he had first felt it here. 

Right now though, nothing could dampen his mood, as he prepared his first test. 

How far he could jump. First, he'd do a standstill, then, he would try running. 

He tensed his muscles as he bent down. He'd done this in gym class countless times, never being particularly good at it. 

Let's see how he'd do now. 

He sprung. 

For a moment he flew through the air, not amazingly high or far by the standards of the world of quirks, but certainly much farther than any normal quirkless person would have been able to. 

Then as he landed, he immediately stumbled, and the speed and force he had landing kept him tumbling for several meters before he stopped, face down in the sand. 

Spitting sand out of his mouth, he groaned as he got back on his feet. 

"This… This is gonna be a thing isn't it?" 

His quirk gave out the feeling of agreement. 

\---

And that it was. 

As it turned out, having superhuman strength didn't translate to instantly using it well. 

He tried long jumps time and again, and he kept stumbling the landing if the jump was any more than 3 meters(He discovered his longest jump was 9,7 meters). 

When he tried to lift the various pieces of metal, he had a nasty tendency to accidentally break them, leading to such things as accidentally caving in a refrigerator's walls when he was trying to throw it, and getting hit in the head with the fridge. 

Subsequently, he'd also discovered that he was pretty durable now. 

After about 4 hours of testing, he had some idea of what he could do. 

Strength.  
-  
He could lift several hundred kilos at least. There was a definite limit though, as he'd failed to move the cars. Also, he didn't have any way to actually measure the weights of these things. Rather unprecise measurement. 

Jumping.  
-  
The longest jump was 9,7 meters running, 7 standing. 3 meters was his current limit for how long he'd jump before he fell upon landing. He needed to work on that. 

Throwing.  
-  
He'd thrown a microwave from one side of the beach to the other. He'd been too afraid of accidentally chucking something all the way to the other beach to try surpassing the throw. 

Running.  
-  
He only needed 13 seconds to do a 100 meters dash. As he'd discovered, he moved faster by jumping, but without being able to land on his feet, it wasn't a realistic alternative for movement. 

Also, he'd had to accept his measuring of speed was probably a bit off, given he had had to measure himself with an app. He'd tried to get the quirk to do it, but that had just been a doomed prospect from the start. 

Durability.  
-  
He hadn't really tested this as much as he could have. But he had accidentally dropped a fridge on his own face, that had made him fall backward and it landing on his chest/head. It would most definitely have broken his neck if he didn't have enhanced durability. It had easily been the most worrying moment of the day, as he'd expected horrible pain, but only got a headache(That faded after about 20 minutes) after he pushed it off of himself.

Healing powers.  
-  
The only thing he hadn't put to the test was his ability to heal himself. He was not all that eager to push put the limits of his healing powers to the test, especially not given he didn't know how far those limits could be pushed before it was too much. 

However, he had some idea from the events of yesterday. It had healed up his broken arm, as well as all his bruises from getting beat up from Katsuki. It had also fixed up everywhere katsuki has hit him with his explosions. He'd been burned pretty badly by those, though it had ended at being singed and burns. 

Lots of burns, but still only burns. It could have been much, much worse. 

For a moment, he had wondered if it would manage to heal him if he had had actual chunks blown out of his flesh. 

After that pleasant image, he had tried not to think more about it. As a hypothetical, it was a situation to avoid anyway. If he was ever in a situation where he had to put it to the test, he would have failed anyway. 

The quirk itself had over the course of the day been showing various levels of emotions, ranging from confusion, to amusement, to worry, to boredom. 

Now, at the end of his tests, he sat down on the front of a car and scribbled down more information in his notebook. Both important and smaller things. 

He needed a full, and detailed description of every single aspect of his quirk. From it's limit to how it acted throughout the day. He'd made a journal section exclusively for that latter one, to document every single time it communicated with him. 

-Now that we're done and I'm just writing, it's just bored. My attempts at Smalltalk has been rather… Lacking in results. It still seems like it only understands what I'm saying half of the time. End of training session.

He closed the book. And put it in the plastic bag he'd used to carry measuring tape, pens, and his book. He'd thankfully not needed to go out and buy a stopwatch, as his phone had served just fine with an app. 

As he got back on his feet, his new companion slithered up and fused itself with his shirt, staining it black.

That had some potential for stealth, but the fact it only came in black limited its practical use by quite a bit. 

One final part remained before he headed home.

He'd had the idea while coming across an old door he'd found on the beach. It was old, and not exactly clean… But it was also whole, and he could probably make some changes to make it so that it fit the door frame back home. 

Mom hadn't been angry about it, but he knew they couldn't afford to actually properly replace it, so either they got creative, or they went without a door to the bathroom. And given he felt really bad about destroying it, he'd decided to fix it. After all, how hard could it be? 

So, before he left, he went back to the door, and effortlessly lifted it over his head like he was lifting a book. 

God this was going to take some time getting used to. 

Getting used to it. 

This was his new normal now. He was normal now. Not some a genetic throwback to an earlier age. 

That brought tears to his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away, having no problem keeping the heavy door aloft with one hand. 

There were still tons of things he didn't know. He didn't really understand the events that had happened the first time he was at this beach, he had no idea how he would handle returning to school after this(How would everyone react?), and he still had no idea how to really communicate with the quirk. 

However, at that moment he didn't really care. He felt… At peace with himself for the first time in so, so long. God, it was an amazing feeling. To be whole. 

As he began walking up the steps to exit the beach, he quickly went over plans for the day. 

Once he had carried back this door home, he'd need to go out and buy new schoolbooks. Also a bag. And food. It would need to be cheap. 

Once he had done that, he'd need to go home and work on this door, and after that, he needed to figure out how he would do training going forward. 

As he walked away from the beach, the door still aloft over his head, he passed a blonde, sickly-looking man, with incredibly sunken in eyes, and limbs so thin and lanky he looked like a skeleton. The man was riding a swegway of rather high quality, and Izuku thought he seemed familiar, but he couldn't place him. 

Two hours later, while browsing an article about All Might saving a teenager from a Villain, he would realize that the man was Toshinori Yagi, All Might's manager. He'd seen him in plenty of articles over the years, but some time ago, the man had suffered an injury which had drastically altered his appearance. Izuku had completely failed to recognize him. 

Behind Toshinori, jogged a brown-haired teenage girl his own age, wearing bandaged wrappings around her hands, as well as training jeans and jacket. 

Izuku flushed a bit, but the girl didn't try to speak to him, so he managed his composure just fine. 

Had Izuku decided to make this beach filled with trash his training spot, he might have befriended these two people that April and his life may have taken a very different course. He did not, however, and it would some time before he saw these two again. 

Such was the way of fate and destiny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's always interesting to write characters who think they know stuff and makes decision based on that knowledge, only for said information to turn out to be completely wrong later down the road.
> 
> anyway, i hope you guys like this chapter.


	3. Homecoming

Izuku had two choices when it came to returning to school. 

The first was to walk in with his quirk obvious for all to see and tell everyone that he no longer was quirkless. 

The other was to keep it secret and not tell anyone about it at all for the remainder of his time there. 

There were pros and cons to each option. 

Telling everyone was easily the more appealing option at first glance. Izuku didn't like lies in general, much less telling them. He just didn't like doing it.

Not to mention that if he told everyone, the way everyone would treat him would change. Maybe he could finally be just another student, not "That quirkless guy". Was wanting to be treated like a human being that damned wrong? 

On the other hand, the cons of telling everyone was all about one person. 

Katsuki Bakugou. 

His "Old friend", was violent, angry, and flat out hated him for being quirkless. 

A week ago he would probably have seen the idea of telling Katsuki that he had a quirk as a surefire way to finally end the bullying, if not mend their relationship. 

Right now though, he had no idea how Katsuki would react. Frankly, he couldn't imagine that whatever Katsuki's reaction was would be positive. 

And then there was the final thing. He didn't WANT to make up with Katsuki anymore. As far as he was concerned, that ship had sailed. He wasn't sure exactly when it had reached the point of no return, but it was probably delusional to think that the events last Friday had been the decisive moment. 

It wasn't. It was just the moment Izuku had woken up. 

As for not telling anyone… 

Well, the biggest drawback was obviously that things would remain the way they were. 

He'd keep getting treated like a pariah just for being "Quirkless", everyone would continue to look down on him, laugh at any perceived flaws, every little mistake, all his hopes, and dreams. 

Katsuki, in particular, would treat him the exact same way he had always done. Probably even worse now, after their last encounter. 

On the other hand, there were pros to not telling anyone. 

Or rather, there were situations that it might be best to avoid altogether. 

The most obvious was that without knowing how Katsuki would react, he could most certainly not rule out the idea that Katsuki might attack him. Like, really attack him, like three days ago. 

If he did, Izuku WOULD fight back. And with the strength he now possessed… Well, there was going to be collateral damage. The absolute worst-case scenario would be if the two of them got into a huge fight at school, wrecked a huge part of it, and put each other in the hospital. 

Win or lose, it would probably tank both of their shots at a hero career, much less getting into Yuei, where any pre-criminal record was guaranteed to get you rejected on the spot. In fact, pretty much all hero schools were like that. 

He couldn't risk that. He just couldn't. 

He had dreamed of what had just happened for an entire decade. It would be the ultimate cruel twist of fate, if after all of it, after all that suffering, after finally getting a quirk, he blew it all on a pointless bout with Katsuki. 

He couldn't let it happen. 

So, he had decided to keep his mouth shut, and his quirk hidden for the rest of his final middle school year. 10 months. He just had to keep this quirk a secret at school all the way to the end of February next year. 

That was a daunting prospect, even if he decided on it as the only course forward. 

At least his quirk had seemingly liked the idea. It had so far been very willing to just fuse to his school jacket and not randomly pop out. Just one time of it doing that, and the secret was out of the bag. 

He'd tried to explain the plan and why it was necessary for 4 hours yesterday to it. He was pretty sure it didn't understand anything about his long explanation other than the point that he wanted to keep it hidden for the moment. 

THAT it had understood, and shown great enthusiasm about. 

He wasn't sure why of was so happy about that specifically, but then again… There were a lot of things he didn't understand about his quirk so far. 

So, as he walked back into Aldera Junior High for the first time since awakening his powers, he felt… Well, a lot of things. Frustration for not getting to show everyone his quirk, fear that he'd get into a fight with Katsuki despite his efforts, and just all around not being comfortable at all. 

Then again, he had never been comfortable here at all. As he looked up at the building as he walked through the yard, he realized something. 

He hated this school. 

He probably shouldn't be as surprised by that as he was, he didn't have any positive memories of his time here whatsoever after all. Yet the revelation really did surprise him.

He hated this building. He hated this school as an institution. He hated the fact that he was stuck here for the entirety of the rest of the year. 

It was just like with Katsuki. It was like he finally woke up, after so long trying to make something of himself here and trying to pretend it wasn't just godawful. 

He bit his lip and forced himself to keep going. Standing around and glaring at the building wasn't going to make any of this any easier. 

He would have to suck it up and deal with it. 

\---

This was so much worse than he had assumed it would be. 

Izuku had expected everything to be just the same as always. 

It wasn't. At all. But not because anything had changed with the class itself. No, the change was with Izuku, not his fellow students. 

Izuku had never, in his entire life felt as alone as he did now in this classroom surrounded by his peers. 

Like with Katsuki and the school itself, it was like Izuku had been living in a dream, only to violently wake up and seeing things for the way they were. 

He had no friends here. 

He had known that already, of course, he hadn't had any friends for years. The only people who cared about him was his mom, a couple of friends of his parents, and now his own quirk, who's life was tied to his own. 

Well, and his dad too probably. 

Sitting at his usual spot, however, he finally GOT it. These weren't his friends. They had never been his friends. They were never going to be his friends, no matter what happened. 

They had every single one of them, stood by as he was humiliated, partaken in it by refusing to condone it, and actively encouraged Katsuki every time he had put him down. 

It would have been easy if this revelation had brought rage and anger like it did with the school and Katsuki. 

But it didn't. He didn't feel angry or pissed off at them. Just a crushing wave of disappointment, sadness, and bitterness. 

Why had he wanted to reveal his quirk exactly? So THESE people would deign to treat him like he was a human being with feelings and dreams? 

Now that was a joke. A far bigger one than he had been a week ago. 

The only friend Izuku had in this entire school, was currently fused into his jacket. 

At least he could take some solace in that. Whatever happened next, he would not be alone. 

The door opened and Katsuki stepped into the room. 

Every muscle in his body tensed like steel coils like he instinctually expected a fight the moment Katsuki walked into the room. In his head, the anger that seemed to shoot into his mind whenever Katsuki came up took hold as he braced himself for the inevitable confrontation. 

Instead, Katsuki didn't even glance in his direction, walked up to his own table, unceremoniously drop his bag by it, then sat down in his seat, all without saying anything. 

Well, that was… Different. 

The completely silent Katsuki was noticed by other people in the class too, not just Izuku. 

They didn't get to begin gossiping about it though, as their teacher walked in 20 seconds after Katsuki.

Their sensei glanced over at Katsuki for a moment, looking kinda sad, then he just began the day like it was a usual and regular day. 

\---

Katsuki's change in demeanor didn't change as the classes went by. Instead, he was just completely quiet and focused exclusively on whatever the teacher said. 

It was… So bloody of character for him, that Izuku wondered if it was some trick to lull him into a sense of false security. 

It was a ridiculous assumption of course, but he honestly couldn't fathom why Katsuki was acting this way. 

He got the answer at lunch. 

As it turned out, he should have read that All Might Story two days ago bit more thoroughly than he did. 

Having been occupied with dealing with his powers, and fixing and replacing everything that broke on Friday, Izuku had only skimmed the article, very much unlike how he normally did with any story involving All Might. 

The teenager All Might had rescued turned out to be none other than Katsuki Bakugou. He had been held hostage by a villain who had possessed his body and had been rescued by All Might, saving him and a girl that had jumped in to try help Katsuki. 

It seemed the experience had really shaken him up. He wasn't sure how to feel about that. On one hand, he didn't want anything bad to happen to anyone, not even Katsuki. On the other hand, a very large part of his mind felt incredible schadenfreude at it. 

It was very unlike Izuku in every way, and the fact that he didn't question it beyond acknowledging the fact that these feelings did exist within him, should have been a major warning sign for the young hopeful hero. 

Instead, he focused on the moment, and how it affected him in the now. 

He'd gotten to hear the story after someone asked Katsuki about it directly, and in true Katsuki form, he had exploded at them for it. 

Afterward, he did not go back to how he regularly was though, instead going back to his previous sulking silence after lunch(and prying questions) was over. 

That was, definitely an improvement as far as Izuku was concerned, but he felt certain Katsuki would seek him out after school was over. 

He didn't. Every time Katsuki saw Izuku that day, he just ignored him. It was… Unsettling in its own way. 

Still far better than a confrontation though. 

Katsuki's friends didn't share Katsuki's newfound seeming indifference towards Izuku. Both had given him constant worried looks during the day like they were desperately hoping he wouldn't call them out on it. 

He didn't. 

He just left for home, making sure to take a different path than Katsuki did. 

Well, it had been a depressing school day, but he had managed to get through it without anyone even considering he had a quirk. 

Katsuki was sulking and leaving him alone for now, though God knows how long that would last. 

Now he just needed to repeat that over for almost 300 times, and hope nothing terrible happened during any of them. Easy.

\---

"So, have you settled on a name for it yet?" 

Izuku was in the process of biting down and chewing on a fish when the question was asked. He hastily chewed and swallowed it.

"Name for what?" 

"Your Quirk dear. It's been 3 days now, and we still just call him "Your Quirk"."

Said Quirk was currently sitting(or the equivalent for a mass of moving liquid) on the sofa and watching tv. How he did that without eyes, Izuku didn't know. 

He several theories on the subject, some he had disproven, other he still needed to- Oh right, his mom had asked him a question. 

"I… I don't know mom. It's kinda silly but…"

"Yes?"

"Well, it's like… I had this whole page with possible different names for him. And I had tried finding one he liked, but…"

"It hated them." Inko guessed.

"Well yeah, that too. But… During that I kinda… got this feeling like I KNEW he already had a name already. And… I didn't want to call him something that wasn't his own name."

A short silence followed, until Izuku continued. 

"Man, that sounds so stupid when I say it out loud…"

"It's not stupid, sweetie. I mean, it's clearly sentient."

She looked to the side, where it was watching an ancient action movie called Rambo first blood. It was so old it predated the first appearance of quirks. 

That it had mastered the art of streaming services would have been proof enough on its that it was indeed sentient. But there was more. 

"It's not stupid to think it might have picked a name for itself, but… couldn't you get it to write it down for you? I mean, if it can't actually speak, then surely you could get it to write it down on paper right? It can hold things after all."

"Yeah, that was my first thought too." He bent down and rummaged through his bag for a moment, then fished out his black notebook. 

After flipping through the book, he held it up so she could see. 

"Well, that's… Clearly a language of some kind, but… I'm sorry baby, I've never seen it before."

He closed the book, then put it back in the bag. 

"Yeah, I didn't recognize it either… I spent three hours just looking up alphabets on Wikipedia trying to find something that matched it, but I didn't find anything."

"I… I see."

"It probably created the language on its own. Which would make it Really, really smart."

"That's… That's a good thing though, isn't it?" 

"Yeah, if I could find some way to reliably communicate with him, he could be an amazing help. The heroes with quirks like mine generally have a huge advantage if the being they've created can think for itself and do independent stuff separate from you." 

Inko glanced worriedly over the Quirk for a moment, just in time to see the scene of the protagonist of the movie break down mentally and cry. 

"Well… If you think it'll help I hope you can make it work sweetie."

She put on her usual smile again. 

"So, are you sure you don't need any snacks for your training Izuku? I can make something for you no problem before you leave."

Izuku blushed slightly. "It's… It's fine mom. We'll only be gone 3 hours or so. And we're not really doing any strength training today, anyways. But… Thanks for the offer. I appreciate it. I really do."

She smiled at him. "Just… Be safe baby okay?" 

"We will."

17 minutes later, Izuku and his black, inky companion walked down the stairs out of his apartment complex. 

17.30.

He would head back home at 20.30. 

Truth be told, he kinda just wanted to train all the way to midnight, but his mom would be worried sick if he stayed out that long. 

He had been wondering where exactly he would do his training. He'd thought about it long and hard. 

He had considered the beach. Then he had thought about it, and realized that training on shifting sands when you wanted to train balance was mayhaps not the smartest thing in the world. 

His next choice had been a nearby park. Then when he had visited it yesterday, he realized that this kind of training in a park was a surefire way to get the attention of other people. The beach was a bit better, but there were still tons of people walking by it all the time. Anyone of them could decide to take issue with what he was doing and call a policeman over. 

Something he most definitely didn't need. 

He was technically, kinda, most definitely breaking the law here after all. 

Quirks weren't meant to be used in public by anyone except licensed heroes.

So, he had to find somewhere more remote, somewhere people didn't visit as night began to set in.

He knew of one such place. It was quite a bit farther away than he'd have liked, but as he was learning, it was amazing how quickly you could get from place to place if you never got tired of running. 

He didn't run at his absolute top speed all the way, of course. That would instantly give away he was using a quirk after all. But he still ran as fast as any normal human could have and he ran with no stops to catch his breath. 

God, it felt amazing. 

Even stopping for red signs, he made the trip in just a bit over half an hour. 

All the way out of the city, and into a place of green grass and trees. 

\---

Izuku had not expected to feel as melancholic as he did coming back here. 

If going to the beach had felt like a return to where it all began, then this trip back to the forest of his youth was a return to where it had started going wrong for him in life. 

That was wrong of course. It was kindergarten where it had all gone wrong for Izuku. 

Still, several of his earliest memories of when Katsuki had turned from his friend to his bully was from here, in this forest. 

Confusion. 

He sighed. 

"I've got some… Bad memories from here." He explained. 

Lots of happy ones too, but they were were generally drowned out by his later ones. 

Anger. The same kind of anger he had felt in his mind as Katsuki walked into the classroom earlier that day. 

"Yeah. Mostly about him. In any case, we're not here for reminiscing about that. We're here to train."

"Let's start with… Jumping."

He'd thought about it, and had decided that rather than doing a bit of everything each day, he would instead do these one thing every day each week. 

At least until he had gotten a good handle on things. 

The thing he needed right now was control. Not more power, he already had that in spades. His powers weren't the strongest strength quirk there was by a longshot, but it was strong. Strong enough for him to become a hero… If he could master it. 

After finding a relatively flat open spot where he wouldn't jump into any trees, Izuku put down his plastic bag by a tree and prepared to start. Then he burst into motion. 

Maybe 4 meters, then he bent his legs down and sprung like a suddenly released coil. He flew through the air, just as far as he had on Saturday. 

Then, as he landed, he didn't tumble and roll along the ground. No, this time he miscalculated as he was planting his feet, and slipped backwards and crashed to the ground on his back.

It didn't really hurt all that much, but he could feel the ache way more than he felt at the beach. Which made sense, this was ground after all, not soft sand. 

He sighed as he got up. 

His main problem right now was a lack of control and balance. He wasn't sure how he was going to handle becoming more used to not just break things as he gripped them, but in terms of the training he was doing now, there was only one real thing to do to fix his problems. 

He would need to jump, again, and again, and again, and again until landing on his feet became second nature to him. There was no other way to do it. It was like riding a bicycle. You just had to keep doing it, again and again until you got it right, and your body remembered how to do it without you having to think about it. 

It was the simplest kind of training imaginable, repetitive, boring and with little variation, but also essential to actually do until he got it right. 

He got to his feet. Well, he had to get started on this, and delays would not help them get it done quicker. 

\---

This host was smart. 

Many hosts it remembered had skipped the basics, and jumped straight into battle and combat, assuming their raw power would see them to victory. 

They had generally been right. But as its memories returned from before the fog, it had begun to remember many cases where it had not. 

Yes, an early crushing defeat was usual, then followed by recovery and a period of weariness where there had once been no fear. 

That, or an early demise. That happened a lot too. Usually, hosts tended to live a long life, or a short one. There were few in between. 

At least…. It thought so. 

It had tried to remember how many hosts there had been in total… But every time it tried to pull back to the very beginning, all the memories returned to the darkness. 

Even the memories of the hosts it had were still not complete. The images were there, but the words… The colors… The sounds... They were all missing, and the emotions, worst of all, were dull.

It was all so blank compared to its current existence which was bright, and vibrant and ALIVE. 

It liked this planet so far. It's colors, the wind, the temperature, and air, but above all, it's dominant race.

This race was perfect. It was not as physically strong as many, many others it had seen, it was fragile, weak, and it had such EMOTIONS! 

It was stunning. It had enjoyed it's host greatly, but it didn't stop there. Even the other members of the species was so full of emotions that it could sense them even without a bond. It could not taste them of course, but the simple fact to know it was there was energizing. 

Like… Like… Like smelling something good, yes, that was the comparison. Like how smelling something good would work up one's appetite.

Crushing despair, hilarious joy, pure happiness, enormous highs, devastating emotional breakdowns, and above all Adrenaline in ALL its Glory.

It was all great, and it was all around all the time. And that wasn't the only thing that was all around the time. 

The were battles, every day, at any time. 

This nation was obviously at war with another force. That was the only explanation for all the constant attacks, which the warriors of this society were constantly putting down. And despite this, all the people went about without a care in the world. 

Truly this was a species mentally built for war, unlike almost any he had seen when people willingly went to watch skirmishes as they happened! Madness. 

But it was a madness it would embrace. 

\---

During his training, both at the beach and here in the forest, Izuku had learned a couple of lessons about super-strength that should have been pretty obvious when you thought about it, but somehow he had never even considered. 

At the beach, he had learned that metal wasn't as solid for people with enhanced strength as it was for other people, and if you weren't careful with how much force you put on it while handling something, it crumpled like tissue paper. 

In these woods, he had learned that endlessly kicking off from the same spot with strength like his, would turn the ground from compact earth to loose dirt, just like if he had hammered it over and over again with a sledgehammer. 

Thus the area he jumped off from had now become an upturned patch where he had pretty much ruined all the grass. For the future, he had decided he would be more varied with where he jumped. 

At least it had produced result. 

For his max jumps, he had only managed not to fall twice, but he had begun to make real progress at his less ambitious jumps. That wasn't enough though. He would need to do this again and again and again until his body had it down to an art. 

In the future when he began to push himself to his limits, it would be those maximum effort jumps that would be how he trained. 

Twice succeeding out of 232 wasn't good enough. Not by any stretch. Nothing short of 100% success was good enough in this regard. 

Still… There was something magnificently satisfying about actually doing something and seeing progress. No matter how little it had been. 

So as he left the forest, covered in dirt from head to toe, he felt… Really good. Very, very, sore but like he had actually accomplished something with these hours of work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally this chapter was going to delve deeper into how venom viewed human society at this point, but i quickly realised it was a terrible idea to just go over all of his thoughts in one chapter.


	4. Stick

It did not take too long before Katsuki began to slowly, but surely, revert back to his old bombastic and annoyingly cocky, self. He only remained flat out sulking for about 3 weeks or so. 

After that, he began to act more and more like how Izuku remembered him. 

That's not to say that he hadn't changed though. He certainly had. Some major, some minor ways. 

In classes themselves he had drastically changed, having gone from always being loud and obnoxious, to being much more quiet, and seemingly hyper-focused on whatever lesson the teacher was teaching. He still had outbursts in class(especially whenever someone dared to bring up the villain incident. That was a surefire way majorly piss him off) but overall he was way less aggressive during the actual classes. 

Except for gym class. 

If Katauki had become less aggressive when teachers actually talked, it was as if he had instead transferred all of that aggressiveness and channeled it into gym class instead. 

Anytime they ended up at some competition(generally a ball game) he would turn into the most aggressive competitor Izuku had ever seen. Even in cases where it wasn't a direct competition he was still hyper-aggressive against pretty much everyone. 

And it wasn't just how he acted either. Izuku wasn't sure if he had become way more aware of such things after unlocking his quirk, or if he was simply hypersensitive when it came to how Katsuki was, but he quickly began to notice that Katsuki began to put on muscles. 

He had always been an athletic guy, but it was obvious that he had begun to majorly work out, the way his arms developed from pretty muscular, to just being jacked. 

For his own part, Izuku was glad that so far his powers didn't seem to majorly affect his muscles in looks. Other than burning off any excess fat he might have had from before, through his daily training, Izuku didn't look any different than everyone else in the class. 

One major downside about hiding his powers was that he pretty much had to deliberately fail his gym classes in everything that wasn't just endurance training, running, or jumping exercises.

He just didn't have enough control yet to actually pretend to be mediocre. He was either amazing or terrible. Not much in between. 

The greatest change about Katsuki in Izuku's mind however, wasn't the changes to his temperament, or his seeming obsession with school grades. 

No, it was his attitude towards him in particular. 

When he had first come back to school after the incident, Izuku had thought he would enjoy a brief reprieve from Katsuki's bullying until the blonde boy got back on his mental feet so to speak. 

Instead, what he got, was what he had gotten at the start. Katsuki ignoring him. Outside of gym class, Katsuki seemed to have made it his policy in life to pretend Izuku didn't exist. At all. 

Izuku had no idea why this was apparently Katsuki's policy going forward, why the villain incident had changed him in this specific way. 

To be honest, though, he didn't really care all that much either. 

He had no doubt that if the two of them got into Yuei together, this calculated indifference would vanish like morning mist before the sun, but if Katsuki was going to leave him alone for the rest of middle school, he would take it. With open arms. 

As for the school work itself… Well, it wasn't as if that much had changed. He still diligently studied at school to the best of his abilities, that part hadn't changed at all. 

The main difference was outside of school. 

As the weeks had gone by, he had begun to have a very specific routine. 

He would go to school in the morning, go home immediately after the last class was over, do all his homework immediately when he came home no matter if he spent 5 hours on it or 1, then if he had spare time he would go out into the city to look up hero battles(He'd stopped taking his books with him to school, so he didn't get to do it in the mornings anymore) until 17.30, when he would head to the woods to train, spend 3 hours every single day doing one type of exercise as much as he could, then go home and get cleaned up, go to bed and rinse repeat the cycle. 

The exception was his weekends. 

During his weekends, at day, Izuku threw himself back into trying to recreate his lost notebooks, as far as he possibly could, desperately trying to remember and look up every single hero he could ever remember seeing. 

Towards the night, he went to the woods and did his exercises. 

It was a very rigid regiment, but frankly, he felt more alive in these months than he had since… Actually, scratch that. Izuku had never felt more ALIVE in his entire life than he currently did. 

While he certainly didn't enjoy going back to his hated middle school, without katsuki doing everything he could to push him down, he could grit his teeth and bear it. 

In his mind though, the real education he had right now, was his training. His physical education, that would be the rock upon which he would build his entire future. 

And he was making progress there too. 

While he still hadn't become capable of punching without just turning whatever he touched to paste, in every other field he had improved. 

In particular his jumps had improved most of all. He had done some math on it, and if he was right, he had roughly one more month of jumping before his balance reached the level he was training so hard for. 

His grip control had also drastically increased so now he didn't accidentally crush things in his hands anymore. He had accidentally broken 3 different door handles on the bathroom and one on his own door, and he'd had to go back to the beach and scrounge for replacements every time. 

Then there was running… Oh, the running. 

If there was one part of his new powers that just gave him joy, it was running at top speed, with not a care in the world, sprinting through the woods, making countless on the spot turns to avoid trees… Of course, it was far less fun to stumble and accidentally hurt himself, but that had become far less of a problem as time went on. 

He'd also broken 7 trees so far, accidentally running into them, so he'd decided to only do this kind of training in the deepest part of the woods, far away from his regular spots. 

For once in his life, absolutely everything was going great. 

The one thing he still hadn't put to the test was his ability to heal himself. 

That changed on his 36th training day. 

\---

Izuku speed through the forest, enjoying the thrill, as he twisted and turned as he moved through the foliage and the forest grounds. 

It was at the end of his training session for the day, and he was heading back towards his regular grounds.

He had become familiar enough with the area in a way he had never been in his younger days when he Katchan and the rest had wandered these woods. 

These woods had once been an adventurous playground for Izuku, where he had explored what had seen like a brand new world, full of possibilities. 

Now that was kinda what they were in truth, not just the overactive imagination of a child. These woods had become something he knew like the back of his hands, where he put everything new about himself to the test. 

Happiness. 

The feeling coursed through his mind, as it always did when he ran like this. 

His quirk wasn't shy about making himself felt, and there was rarely a day where izuku didn't get some emotion that wasn't his own running through his head. However, of all the feelings his quirk had, happiness, true joy, was seemingly only reserved for the times where he ran to the very limit of how far he could push himself. 

It just heightened how enjoyable these sessions of sprinting was for him. With all the rest, there was a sense of struggling, of work, of training to master something. But running was different. Moving at great speeds just felt… Right. Like this was what he was born to do. 

It was the one part of his powers that he had instantly UNDERSTOOD, from the moment he really began to really use it. 

He practically flew across the forest ground, made a quick jump over a rock, sidestepped out of the way of a large tree, smashed through some branches that snapped instantly the moment he touched them. Never stopping, always moving. 

He wondered how it would feel when he began to combine this speed with actual real jumps, not just clearing hurdles. 

He reached a small river that went through the forest, flanked on either side by dirt walls. 

Izuku should have just jumped the small ravine, trusting in his relatively good new balance to carry him across and safely on the other side. However, he knew from experience that the sides of this ravine were just packed dirt and unstable dirt at that. He'd fallen into the water here before after the ground literarily crumbled beneath him. 

Instead, he made a hard turn right and kept going along the river. The goal was a rather big log up ahead, that he'd discovered and made note off long ago. 

He'd used it to cross before, and he had yet to fall off it.

As he neared the log, he made another quick and direct turn, jumped up on to it, maybe one third across, he instinctually bent down, preparing to make the jump across the rest of the log in one go. 

The force of his legs as he kicked off broke the decades-old, weathered, waterlogged and rotten log beneath it in half, and he slipped sideways as the log collapsed out from under him. Then PAIN shot up through his right leg! He screamed as he fell down into the water, the now two pieces of logs falling with him at an awkward angle. 

The water in the river engulfed him for a moment as the shock and panic of the sudden pain took him. 

Then he wrenched his head and an upper body above water, which just made the pain even worse! 

Tears forming in his eyes from the pain, he looked at his foot. It was caught between the two pieces of logs, not deeply, but still enough that he had to move the logs to get it out. He tried desperately to ignore the weird angle of how his right leg lined up with how his foot had to be caught between the two logs. 

He carefully tried to hunch over closer to it so that he wouldn't disturb the foot more than he had to. He failed miserably, and a scream through gritted teeth passed through his lips. 

When he was close, he hesitated for a while moment, knowing what he had to do, but also understanding the pain that would follow as he did it. 

After taking deep breaths for a while, desperately trying to calm himself as emotions of worry(as if he needed to know more about how badly he'd screwed up) inserted itself through his head. 

With one final deep breath before the plunge, he prepared himself mentally for what he was going to do. 

Then, tears, still in his eyes from the pain, he forced both his hands between the log pieces, and then he began to push them apart. 

The pain tripled at the sudden motion, and with a scream, and a push with all his might, he forced the two logs up and apart, letting him wrench his foot free, before collapsing backwards into the water, heads still ringing with the feelings of worry. 

Shortly after he forced his head back up out of the shallow water, harking and coughing. The pain was the worst thing Izuku had felt in his life. 

The crushing pressure upon it was gone, so there was that at least. 

He took a deep breath, then, lying back on his elbows, he lifted his leg up, so he got a look at the foot. 

The sickening sight almost made him faint. 

His foot had dislocated so it had gone completely to the side, blood seeping from where the muscles had torn. 

He just stared at it in shock, breathing, when the black mass began to move, then, went to the wound. Oh right. He had healing powers. Thank god. 

It went around his entire foot and lower leg, giving izuku that same feeling he had back on the apartment. 

Then, once it had completely covered the foot with it's entire mass, it wrenched the foot back into it's proper place and direction. 

Izuku's scream of pain echoed down the ravine and up through the forest. 

He gasped, and for a moment his strength went out, and for the third time that night, his head was dunked in water. 

This time, he didn't have to force himself up. 

The black liquid pushed from below and lifted his head above water without any prompting. 

Which was good, because izuku was in shock and other than instinctually harking out water yet again, he didn't feel like he could do anything at the moment. 

He lay there in the water, for what felt like an eternity, just breathing, before he finally began recovered from the shock. 

He tried to rise, making sure he didn't put any weight on the leg which still hurt like it had had all it's skin torn off. 

Propping himself up against the edge of the water and leaning against the muddy earth wall he sighed looked down at his quirk, still covering his leg as it pretty much just floated in the water. 

So there buoyancy to the black liquid, interesting, that meant- Was he seriously making notes, just after nearly losing his foot? 

Idiot. Stupid idiot. He'd learn weeks ago that he couldn't trust himself not to break things when jumping. Yet he'd done it anyway, nearly crippling himself in the process. At least… At least he hoped it was just nearly. 

The horrible idea struck him, that maybe the quirk couldn't heal the internal damage… Then he crushed it, hard. He WOULD heal from this. He would learn, and not do this again. 

Now he just had to get out of the river, rest, and let the healing factor take hold, fix him up, then he'd get home. 

He looked up the wall, at least 3 meters from the water surface. 

He… He Wasn't going to be able to climb that with only one foot. 

Ok, so new plan. He would sit there in the water, soaked through in the darkness until he had healed enough to get up from here. THEN he'd go home. 

…And he was actually supposed to be heading home soon. Great. 

Given his phone was in a bag in a tree, he'd have no way to call her and tell her he'd be late. She'd be worried about him. 

Izuku hit head back into the earth wall in frustration. God, he was an idiot. 

He'd learned this lesson on his first day, but apparently, having successfully avoided the problem for over a month, he'd forgotten why he did constantly changed jumping-off places in the first place. 

It was so he didn't constantly break things as he jumped off of them. Like he did with the log. But no, he was a stupid idiot tha- Vulnerability. 

Izuku stopped in his tracks, his quirks warning of the seeming danger, right before a voice from above sounded. "You need some help kid?" 

The voice was rough, deep, and intimidating. 

Izuku looked up, at the speaker. 

On the opposite side of the river, on top of the ravine stood a tall man, dressed in black and blood red armor, covering his face was a cowl like a mask with pupils as red as his armor, and on his forehead, he had two devil like horns. 

All in all, he looked bloody intimidating, standing there looking down on him, covered in shadow and only lighted up by the moon. 

Izuku stared silently at him in shock and fear, until reality asserted itself. 

The guy was obviously a hero, coming to the aid of someone in need. That one in need being him.

His words failed him, so he just nodded, too embarrassed to speak.

The man jumped down and landed on his feet in the water with no particular difficulty. 

He bent down and inspected Izuku's leg. 

"Hmmm… That's bad. Pretty bad. I'm guessing this liquid is your quirk?" 

Izuku ignored for a moment how he had apparently just seen through his liquid and inspected the leg itself and just answered "Yes". 

"Hmmm… It's healing the wound. You have healing powers as well?" 

"As well?" 

The man looked him in the eyes. God those red pupilless eyes were unnerving. 

"You have to have super strength and durability. If you didn't have the former, you'd never be able to move as you did, you certainly wouldn't have broken that thing just by using it as a springboard" He pointed a thumb at the pieces of the formerly whole log. "And if you didn't have the latter, your leg would have either be ripped off, or crushed so hard it didn't even resemble a foot anymore."

His blood went cold. 

"You've were watching that?" 

Was this guy a stalker? A kidnapper? What the hell was he gonna do? He couldn't fight like this, he'd-

"Don't take it personally kid, I watch a lot of people around me for quite a distance, whether I want to or not." 

Oh. It was just his quirk. He relaxed again. 

"So you have some large scale observation quirk?"

"....That's one way to put it."

"Anyhow, we can continue this chat after we get out of the water."

Before he could argue the man lifted izuku up and slung him over a shoulder, much to Izuku's protestations and grunt of pain for his leg. The feeling of Anger shot through his mind, his quirk being pissed at the sudden change. 

"Sorry if this hurts a bit."

Then with remarkable speed, he crossed the river and began to climb the side one-handed with no problem, Izuku still slung across his shoulder. Once he was up, he gently unslung Izuku and laid him up against a tree, making sure his right leg rested over a tree root and his foot not actually touching the ground. 

Then the hero went over to another tree to pick up something. 

Izuku blinked then realized it was his bag. 

"Thought you might need this. In case you want to call for home. Whether I take you to a hospital or you just heal that on your own I'm gonna take a wild guess you'll be late home tonight."

Izuku took the bag, but he didn't fish out his phone yet, instead staring at the man. 

" I… I have a choice?"

"Of course. If you want me to take you to a hospital, I'll do it. Of course, that would mean you'd have to explain how you got the injury. Now, I might be wrong, but you don't strike me as much as a liar, so I'm guessing you might say something you might regret."

Izuku bit his lip, then opened his mouth to talk. 

Then the realization hit him. This was a pro hero, who had seen him train. Using his quirk. Shit. Shit, shit, SHIT! 

Wait. He'd given him a choice. 

"You're not gonna arrest me?" he said, hopeful that this night wasn't about to get even worse. 

"Kid, if I arrested every single new hopeful hero candidate who I saw take some liberties training their quirks, I'd never get anything done."

He motioned his arm to the forest. 

"You think you're the first kid who thought to go out into the woods and train his quirk? You're not. I literarily come across that at least once a month."

Izuku felt like an idiot. Of COURSE, this was common. This was the most obvious spot someone would use for this. Some hero was bound to discover him sooner or later. 

A short silence followed before the hero broke the silence. 

"Well, kid? You wanna go to the hospital? Or you wanna just heal it yourself?"

Izuku stared at him, then fished out his phone. "I… I'll just do it myself."

He debated whether he'd call his mom, or just send a message. He decided a message. That would be simpler. He'd explain more when he got home. 

-Hey mom, I'll be out late tonight- He Hoovered his thumb over the send button, debating if he should write more. What more could he send in a short message? That he'd broken his foot and had to stay out to heal it?

No, that was something he'd have to talk about in person. He sent the message, then turned off the sound on the phone. 

As he put the phone back in the bag, he realized incredulously that the hero had sat down opposite from him leaning against a tree. 

"You… You're staying?" 

"Of course I'm staying. What, you think I'm gonna leave you here? Alone? At night? With a broken foot and no means of escape if something were to happen?" 

Yeah… When he worded it like that, it made the idea of him leaving seem kinda… Unheroic. 

"I… Don't you need to go and patrol in case there's someone in need you have to help?"

"I AM helping someone in need."

Izuku blinked at that and just stared at the man. Then he began to tear up.

He quickly began to try and dry away the tears. Idiot. He was wet all over. All he did was smear more water over his face. 

The hero got up and went over to him, knelt down, and put a hand gently on his shoulder. 

"How are you feeling kid?" The voice was much softer now, more filled with compassion. 

How did he feel? He had no idea anymore. 

He felt humiliated for screwing things up so badly and needing help to even get out of a shallow river. 

He was angry at himself for forgetting a lesson he learned on day one here, for forgetting such a simple lesson that would easily have avoided any of this. 

He also felt… he felt incredible gladness, joy, that someone, that ANYONE who wasn't his mom cared enough to ask how he felt. If he was okay or not. 

It was so stupid. Yet somehow it made him feel so glad. Like he actually mattered. It was a simple question, yet somehow just hearing someone, a complete stranger ask it of him without a hint mockery brought such happiness with it. 

After some fumbling at his belt(Izuku just realized he carried a belt full of pouches) the man pulled out something that resembled a cleaning rag, though fully clean, and he handed it wordlessly to Izuku, who grabbed it and began to dry his face clean of tears. 

"Thank you…"

"No problem kid. Also, keep it if you want."

He choked. 

"Not that! Thank you for… Thank you, for… For caring."

The man stared into his eyes with those pupilless red ones. 

The man didn't answer, but he kept his hand on Izuku's shoulder, firmly, but gently. 

After Izuku had finally calmed down completely, he finally spoke again. 

"You wanna talk about it?"

He almost did.

He almost told him everything. About Katsuki, his life, how he had been worthless for most of it, and how even with his quirk how he still somehow managed to screw things up, his guilt for being a terrible son who made his mom worry about him all the time. 

"No… But… But thanks for asking."

\---

"Sure you don't want fire?"

The two of them once again sat opposite each other, leaning up against trees. 

"Yeah, I'm not really bothered by cold anymore."

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He was still affected by ice-cold temperatures, but he'd discovered early in his training he wasn't affected by just being wet at night. 

His quirk had been pretty erratic tonight, ever since they meet this hero, he had been all over the place, rage, suspicion, annoyance. At the mention of fire, rage returned.

"It's quite the multitasker this quirk of yours."

He blushed. 

"It's... It's not that special. Just a general strength quirk really."

"No, that it's most certainly not. The strength itself is pretty decent, but healing… Healing is exceedingly rare, even amongst quirks that cover it exclusively, much less those who only have it as a side power."

Izuku flushed even harder. A pro hero was praising his quirk! An actual pro hero! 

"Cold resistance isn't anything to sneeze at either. It's way more useful than you might think. During winter, even passive cold resistance is such an upgrade from the standard."

Well, it wasn't like Izuku didn't know that, but hearing it spoken by a pro somehow made it seem real. Not just something you read on message boards. 

"So… You think I have a shot at being a hero then?"

The man looked at him with a… Kinda inquisitive look. 

"Why do you want to be a hero kid?"

He was taken a bit aback, but he answered honestly. 

"To help people… Like… Like you did tonight." He blushed furiously as he said it, but it was true enough. 

This was what he wanted to be. Someone who helped people who needed it. 

The man gave a small smile. 

"I'm flattered to be someone's inspiration, but surely you had some other inspiration before tonight."

"Yeah… I did."

"Well, it's kinda stupid, but… I wanted to be a hero since I was 4..."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess your inspiration was All Might was it not?" 

"Yeah." He smiled at the memory of seeing All Might's debut video. Then it vanished remembering what came afterwards. 

"Yeah…" 

"You were a very late bloomer, weren't you? With your quirk I mean?" 

Izuku's head shot up as he stared at the man's mouth agape. 

"How… How did you know?" 

"There were quite a lot of signs. For one, you are training far, far more to master the basics than anyone who grew up with their quirk reasonably would. In particular, your complete inability to do a punch that's something other than full force and a love tab REALLY stands out. Kids with strength quirks learn very quickly growing up to control how strong they hit something. It's way harder to learn if you have to learn it in your teens."

"You… You know a lot about this stuff."

"I've lived quite a while now. In my profession, you learn a lot of things."

A short silence, then… 

"To answer your previous question kid, I think you have a shot at being a Hero."

Izuku's breath stopped cold. 

"Your quirk is pretty good, you still need to work on your punches quite a bit, but frankly, I've never cared much about quirks. It's a man's motivation and what he does with it, that defines who he is. Not whether he's strong enough to have made a rank."

Izuku just stared at him, tears forming up. In his eyes again. He tried to force them down, but they came anyway. This time though, he didn't feel sad or conflicted. Just… Relieved. Incredibly relieved.

His quirk was horribly, horribly confused. 

Another silence followed, where Izuku finished crying and drying away the tears. 

Then something struck him. 

"Wait… How long have you been watching me? I didn't do punches today."

"4 days" He admitted.

"I've been patrolling just south of this forest this entire week. You weren't exactly inconspicuous or hard to keep an eye on, alone in the forest, running around like a cheetah."

Dear god, Izuku was lucky this guy hadn't just decided to call the cops or arrest him. 

Izuku blinked. 

"Oh… Oh, I'm so sorry, but I just realized… I never asked for your name!"

He winced. He just now realized that, and just randomly blurted it out? 

The hero didn't seem to mind. 

"I think it would be better if we don't do names kid. If I never know your name, I would not be lying if someone asked me for the name of a green-haired teenager who's a bit liberal with the law while training. But, if you must have something to call me, you can call me Stick, for the time being."

He took a wild guess the name came from the two sticks he had in a holster at his belt. 

"No problem. Stick." 

A short silence followed, but somehow it didn't seem hostile or forced. 

"So, how did you figure out I was inspired by All Might?" 

He was genuinely curious. He had All Might shirts of course, but he didn't use them while training. The only things he had with him were a set really washed out clothes he used for training, his keys, his black notebook, and his phone. 

"Well… Don't take this the wrong way, but 9 out of every single hero I've met in this country was inspired by All Might to become heroes."

That… Sounded just about right. 

"Wait… You're NOT from Japan?" 

"No."

"Wow… your Japanese is REALLY good, for it not being your native language."

And it was, Stick spoke perfect Japanese, he had for sure pegged him as being a Tokyo Native. 

"So I've been told."

A quick silence followed, but this time it was stick who broke it. 

"It's a peaceful land, this Empire of Japan."

He wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that.

"It's not peaceful in your homeland?" 

"No. It's not been true peace there since the start of the second Millennia. There's always something going wrong."

He sighed. 

"But don't let my worries trouble you. How's your foot?" 

Izuku blinked. Oh yeah, the reason they were still here. He wiggled his toes a bit. Pain immediately shot up his foot. It wasn't anything compared to the pain of getting it janked into place, but it was still bad. 

"Pretty bad still."

Stick stared at his foot, still covered in black liquid. 

"The healings pretty fast. I think you should be able to walk with help in maybe 3 hours." 

So 02.00 then. Great. He really was going to spend the rest of the night before he got home. 

Izuku sighed. 

\---

The trip back to his home took around 3 and a half hours. Meaning it was 05.17 when Stick and him reached the stairs to his apartment. 

The pain in his leg had thankfully begun to actually fade by then. He couldn't put too much weight on it, but at least he could actually walk now. Though slowly.

At the stairs, he turned to say goodbye to Sticks. 

"Thanks… Thanks for all the help."

"No problem kid. One final thing though, before I leave you to yours."

"Yes?"

"Punching. Your current training regiment isn't gonna work. If you want control over them, you need something that isn't so weak that it just instantly breaks when you put some force on it, but isn't so rigid that it can only break when force is applied."

Okay…

"What do I need then? It sounds like you have something in mind."

"What you need kid, is a punching bag."

Izuku blinked. 

That… Was so simple and obvious that he couldn't fathom why he hadn't thought of it himself. 

How he was going to afford a punching bag was another thing entirely, but it was good advice. Much better than continuing to punch rocks anyway. 

"Thanks, thanks for the…" Izuku blinked. 

He had looked down for a couple of seconds to consider the advice, and in that time, Stick had suddenly disappeared into thin air.

He stood and just looked for a moment. Then he turned and began the slow and kinda painful journey up to his apartment. 

As he got to the door. He carefully checked if it was open. 

It was. 

That meant mom was still awake waiting for him. 

He stood there, for a second, contemplating it, then stepped inside to talk to his mother. This was going to be pretty bad he had no doubts.


	5. Pause

Izuku had never been grounded before. 

Technically, he still hadn't been, he hadn't been punished, but he was to stay home for the rest of the week to recover from the damage to his foot. His mom had put her foot down on that. Quite a bit more successfully than Izuku had with the log. 

His mother had taken the sight of him filthy, wet, limping and with a destroyed shoe, as well as he had expected she would. However, it wasn't before he actually told her what had happened, that the flood works had really come, and she had embraced him in tears. 

He had tried to downplay it by how quickly his injury had healed, but frankly, it was as if the moment he stepped foot inside his home, all the energy had gone out of him. This had added him feeling and looking like a drained and cracked battery on top of his other problems as he was talking to his mom and trying to calm her down. 

In the end, she had ordered him to bed after a quick shower to clean himself(The hot water doing nothing to quicken him up.), to rest and recover. 

It had made Izuku incredibly guilty to know he had worried her so much, because of his own stupid mistakes. 

He hadn't even considered that he was supposed to have classes in a few hours before his head hit his pillow. Then it had been a fleeting thought in his head before he fell asleep. 

When he woke the next time, the pain in Izuku's foot had dampened to a dull ache. At least while he was lying down. It would probably hurt more when he walked. The first thing that struck Izuku upon regaining consciousness was not his leg though. 

Izuku felt DRAINED like he had been a wet towel that had been wrung again and again until all every single drop of water had left him. Then been thrown out to be baked in the sun. 

He had to go and get something to eat. What time was it anyway? 

He glanced over to an All Might wall clock he had owned for years. 

It was 22.13. He had slept for around 16 hours straight. Wow, he had been tired. Well… He still was.

He forced himself to sit upright on the bed, then with just a bit of hesitation, he slowly put his legs out over the side, and fully expecting pain, he lowered them to the ground. 

Well, he had been right, he did feel a pang of pain, but frankly, it was nothing compared to anything he had felt last night. It certainly wasn't anything compared to how drained he felt. 

He had to go and eat something. Anything. 

As he forced himself to his feet, trying his best to ignore the leg, he walked across his room and opened the door. 

He could hear sounds from the living room, so his mom was awake. It sounded like she was watching tv.

His leg still covered in black liquid, izuku haltingly walked past the ugly door to their bathroom(Izuku had made it too short so it didn't fully fit into the doorframe, and without any paint, there wasn't any hiding how old and used it was, no matter how much he had cleaned it.) and opened the door to the living room. 

As he had suspected, his mom was indeed watching tv, though she turned her head the moment he stepped in. Then she scrambled to her feet. 

"Izuku! Sweetie, how are you feeling?" 

He blushed, and awkwardly scratched the back of his head. 

"I'm… I'm fine mom. Just a bit tired, and hungry."

She quickly guided him to the sofa she had recently been sitting on and helped him down in it. 

"I'll cook something up for you sweetie. Just relax and take it easy okay?" 

As she went to the kitchen and begun preparing something, Izuku asked "...What about school?"

"I called in and said you were sick sweetie, and that you wouldn't be attending school for the rest of the week."

"Oh."

Yeah, that made sense. He really was sick after all. Maybe not with the usual sickness of a middle schooler, but still sick. 

After that, an uncomfortable silence arose, as Inko made food, and, Izuku absentmindedly watched tv. 

\---

Inko made food. It was what she did. It was what she had done for a decade now. It wasn't that she resented doing it, quite the opposite, she had come to enjoy the peace of the home. 

But there were few times where she had felt as useless as she did now.

She had been useless last night too. The only thing she could do was wait for Izuku all night and constantly send him messages he didn't respond to. 

She had been really mad about that, worried something had happened to her, yet all her rage had gone out of her the moment Izuku came home like he did, dirty, shaking, and with his leg like it was. All that was left had been worry and concern about his state. 

It had been an eye-opener, as she sat her boy down and heard his story. 

It wasn't like Inko hadn't understood the potential risks involved in Izuku's dreams. Heroes got hurt sometimes. Yet it was something completely different to hear about it than to actually have it happen to her boy. 

And not even a villain attack, but a simple training accident. Something that could easily have happened at school, and could easily have crippled him for life, or at least given him a permanent limp. 

Yet now he was walking relatively easily just a day after the accident. 

Her father had once dislocated an arm, and he had taken a good half year to recover from it. Frankly, his arm had never been the same for the rest of her life. You weren't actually able to fully recover from dislocated limbs. It was a permanent injury that never fully healed. Unless you had a regenerative quirk or were healed by one. 

Yet her baby was almost shrugging off a much worse dislocation after less than two days. It was a moment that really made things sink in for Inko, that her baby had a quirk, and was going to realize his dreams. 

It was something that made her incredibly happy… And terrified. 

"Food's ready sweetie."

Izuku turned his head and looked at her direction, his eyes zooming in at the food. God, he must be hungry. 

After sitting himself down Izuku beginning to devour his food at an astonishing speed, with Inko just staring at him, still worried. 

Izuku, bless him, noticed her worried look, and after devouring a fish, he asked "I'm fine mom. Honestly, I'm fine. I'm a bit sore and there's some pain in my leg still, but it's fading."

He was honest, her son always was. But the leg wasn't really the problem here, not really. She sighed. 

"Just… Finnish eating okay? Once you're done… We've got some stuff to talk about."

Even before yesterday, she had been procrastinating with recent events. She should have discussed this with Izuku weeks ago. Yet she'd been putting it off. 

She hadn't been sure why not before yesterday. Or this morning depending on how you looked at it. 

She was afraid of change, of this little life she had been building up for herself and Izuku completely being upended. Inko didn't like her life being upended. She'd had it happen to her before, and it had never been a good thing. This time though, it would her herself who did it. Not something beyond her control. 

\---

Izuku wasn't sure what his mom wanted to talk to him about, but he had fears. Fears he wouldn't be allowed to train anymore. At least the Drained feeling seemingly vanished with the meal. That was something at least.

"I'm… not really sure where to begin Izuku. There's a lot of stuff I want to talk to you about. Both about… Well, yesterday, and the future."

She sighed. 

"The first thing I want to ask, is why didn't you call me yesterday, instead of just sending me a message?" 

"I… I didn't want to make you worry…"

"I was worried SICK Izuku!!!" 

He winced. 

"I literally sent you over a hundred messages, begging you to call me. I was TERRIFIED something awful and terrible had happened, like you had been kidnapped, or worse!"

Hearing his mom say it out loud just made Izuku feel even more guilty about screwing up. 

"Did you honestly think I wouldn't understand if you had called and explained it to me? Yes, I'd be worried sick, but at least I would have known what was going on, and that is something you can deal with." 

"I… I'm sorry… I just… I didn't want you to…" 

Hearing her say it out like that, just made him feel like a moron. Like he thought his mom wouldn't be able to handle any bad news at all. God, he was a terrible son. 

Inko looked at him, with a look that somewhere between stern, sad, pitying, and concerned all at the same time. 

"But… The worst part Izuku is that if you had just called, I could easily have helped you out getting home, instead of just sitting here and worrying about you."

"But… But we don't have a car, and we don't have the money for a taxi." 

"I have Friends, Izuku. Your father also has old friends in the city. Anyone of them would have been willing to drive to the park and pick you up."

Izuku's brain stopped working for a moment. Then he REALLY felt like a goddamn moron. Of course one of his mom's friends would have been willing to pick him up, he was just so used to them not having a car or not being able to take a taxi, that he hadn't even considered that as an option. 

"You… Didn't realize that was an option, did you?"

"No…"

Inko sighed, tension visibly going out of her face. 

"I am grateful that Stick-San helped you out in the woods, and then made sure you made it home safely once you could walk again. But it really would have been better if you had gotten home so you could have recovered in bed."

"Which was was very much an option, and you would have known that if you had called me."

He didn't say anything in response, just bit his lip and cursed himself for being an idiot. 

"Just… don't do it again okay? If something happens and you need help, tell me about it. Don't hide it, thinking it'll go away. It never does, sweetie. Ever."

He looked up at her. Then, he start to tear up as he replied. 

"Okay, Mom… I… I won't do it again."

"Oh, sweetie…"

She took his hand and gave him one of those comforting smiles he loved so much. 

This time it was Izuku who broke the silence. He really didn't want to. Not now, anyway. A smarter move would have been to talk about it later down the week. But he had to get this out of the way. 

"I… I have something I need to say too. It's not something I wanted to bring up so soon after… My leg injury, but… Well, like you said, pretending the problem isn't there won't make it go away."

Inko's look changed to more stern as if she was forcing herself to be calmer and more serious. 

"What's the problem?"

"Well, Stick-san kinda laid out for me a huge problem in my thinking. When I choose the forest as my training spot, I thought it was far out of the way, and no one would notice. Except… I was dead wrong."

"As stick-san pointed out, that is literarily the first place people who want to be heroes goes to train. It's obvious for any pro hero with experience. If I go back to training regularly there, sooner or later, I'll be noticed by another pro hero. Quite possibly one who won't be as forgiving as Stick-san was."

Inko sat in silence as he spoke, only talking when he was done. 

"So what do you plan to do then?" 

"I… I don't know. I'll have to find another spot. Probably even further away."

Izuku winced at his mother's expression as he said that, but after a short inner debate, she sighed. 

"If that's how it is, then that's how it is. You're still staying home for the rest of the week though. When you go out again, I want your foot to have healed completely with no doubt about it."

Fair enough. 

He hesitated before he spoke next. It was a question he had to ask her, he had to know, even if it sounded like she had given her blessing. 

"So…. You'll still let me train? Even after… well… this? 

She stared at him for a while in silence, while Izuku fidgeted in place, then she sighed. 

"Yes."

A weight was lifted from Izuku's shoulders. 

She hesitated briefly before continuing. 

"Also… regarding finding a new training place for you… I… I could probably get someone to drive you there. Though that would depend heavily on the day."

"It's… It's something to work on. There's more than enough time I suppose." 

He chuckled awkwardly. 

"Yeah… There is."

His mom didn't exactly go back to being cheerful, but her smile did return. 

"Also, I have something I've been meaning to tell you for a while now."

"What?"

"About a month ago, I… I got a job offer."

"Really? As a lawyer again?"

"Yes." 

That… was unexpected. Izuku wasn't exactly filled in about his mom's old career as he could have been(She hadn't been one since he was 6), but he knew her choice to leave the business wasn't one she had wanted. She had effectively been blacklisted by the legal firms, without technically losing her license, after her old firm had been shut down. 

He didn't know why it had been shut down, but he knew his mom had been devastated by it. 

It was also a moment that had marked the first financial change in his life, as they had moved out of their old house and into their current apartment. It was also the event that had lead to his dad working abroad to keep them afloat financially. 

The second change was his dad being demoted for something, which had sharply reduced their amount of spending money about 2 years ago. 

"It's… In Yokohama."

Oh.

"Well… It's not as bad as it could be. I mean, it could have been in Tokyo. That would have been three times as far away."

Inko looked at him kinda sadly.

"It still means things will change sweetie. I won't always be here when you come home."

Izuku blushed. 

"I'm… I'm not a little kid anymore, mom."

"Aye, You're not. You're not quite an adult either though, as yesterday proved."

He winced, but he didn't argue. 

"To be honest sweetie, I wasn't all that excited about taking the job. Not really. I… I was worried about leaving you home without me."

He blushed again. 

"But then… After you discovered your quirk… You changed."

"I… I haven't changed." 

"You have. A lot."

She smiled at him, a smiled Izuku didn't instantly recognize, but one he eventually realized was pride. 

"Frankly sweetie, you've changed so much this last month. You're happy now. You go outside every day with a smile on your face. You've begun to take your future so much more seriously than you did before."

Her smile beamed even more. 

It felt strange to Izuku. To be praised for just going out and training and doing his regular stuff. Was he really that different now? He didn't feel any different. Well, except for anything regarding Katsuki and his school. That was different. Really different. And during his training sessions he felt more alive in a way he never had before, and- and yeah, he was kinda different now wasn't he? 

"So you're taking the job?" 

"Yes. I've… talked about it with your father, and he agrees it's for the best. For one thing, Izuku, if you're really going to become a pro, it will help you immensely to have a more financially stable base to work from."

Well, that was true enough. Images of a punching bag crept through his mind. Also maybe not having a bathroom door that was literarily collected from a trash heap. 

His mom then got a massive and happy grin on her face and looked for a moment like she was about to say something. Then she cut herself off and instead said. 

"Anyway, we'll see how it turns out. It's still months away until I start working again in any case. We'll figure things out before then. 

There was something more going on here. Judging by the way his mom was smiling to herself. She had been about to say something completely different, yet had stopped herself and just ended the topic prematurely. 

Part of him wanted to dig deeper, but another part of him, the part that always told him to be cautious, told him to not push his luck more than he had with that training conversation. 

If mom had something more to tell him, she would do it in her own time. 

\---

Izuku laid in bed reading through a long, long list of heroes. 

As it was, he didn't really have anything else to do at the moment. 

Unlike his mom, who had only slept for 6 hours after he came back home, and thus had a relatively easy time going back to the regular rhythm, Izuku felt as awake as he ever had been. 

Which just meant that instead of sleeping, he was lying in bed browsing his phone. 

He knew logically that he shouldn't be trying to figure out who Stick actually was, but his curiosity, and almost addiction level of trying to figure out everything he could about any hero he met drove his search for the red cowled man. 

Not that he had any luck. For one thing, Stick wasn't Japanese, which meant searching through Japanese lists of heroes wasn't all that likely to find results. Unless he was an immigrant, stick would not be listed at all. 

Even if he had been Japanese, there were still thousands of heroes in Japan alone. A rather large list to search through, given he didn't have a name. 

He had still done so. After 4 hours he gave up the Japanese lists and went over the ones in America, the country with the largest superhero registry in the world. 

If Izuku had had trouble in the Japanese list of candidates, that was drowned out by the sea that was the American candidates. Literarily hundreds of candidates who all fit the criteria of 1. Red and Black Armor. 2. Sensory quirk, and 3. Tall. 

As the clock turned 08.00 he still hadn't found anything. 

After that, it was China, the land with the second-largest hero population, then third India. Admittingly he knew it was kinda stupid to search the largest and biggest countries first. He had never thought of the U.S.A as a country that could be described as a land without peace. 

Nor China frankly. It had been in America that the new world order post the societal collapse brought on by quirks had been founded, but few lands had rebuilt themselves with that order as quickly as China and Japan. 

Still, it was either this or search through countries at random. He'd work himself all the way down from the top to the bottom, and pray he didn't accidentally miss Stick in the thousands of guys he looked through. 

The rather sad truth was that it was fully possible Izuku had already missed him, and not realized it. If Stick had used another costume in the past, he could easily have seen a picture of him and not realized it. 

But it was either this or give up on the search. If Izuku failed at this, it would not be for lack of trying. 

After breakfast at 08.00, there was still nothing. He threw himself through the European countries. No result. 

14.21, he moved on to Africa. 

That took him literally the rest of the day, not counting dinner and an evening meal. Before he went to bed, he moved on to South America, and he was still browsing through Brazil as he fell asleep. 

All in all, despite not having moved much, it had been one of the most active research periods of Izuku's life so far. It had also been one of his most fruitless. 

As he would learn 2 days later, having literarily gone through every single official public hero list on the planet, it had all been a huge waste of time. He didn't learn anything about Stick. 

What he did learn that week, was how long it took to fully repair a foot twisted 90 degrees sideways. 

Roughly 2 and a half days. It went in his black book, and regarding his powers, it was the only thing Izuku learned that week. The irony he spent an entire week devoted to his healing powers wasn't lost on him. 

The rest of the week was generally studies of more Heroes he might have come across at some point in his life. 

His quirk returned to watching ancient movies once his foot was healed, and with it the usual emotions running through his head. 

What it watched seemed to have no rhyme or reason. Sometimes it watched old samurai films, other times a random anime tie movie, other times foreign action stories. One time it had streamed the entire Dragon Ball film library in one go. 

He really didn't understand it's tastes. Sometimes he wondered if it even understood what people said in movies. It didn't seem to care if the film was subtitled or dubbed.

That would line up with what he speculated in his black book. It only seemed to understand him half of the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for anyone wondering how in the world izuku and his family wouldnt be able to pay for taxi, just know that japan has one of the two highest taxi rates in the world. it's really expensive to travel with taxi there. its one of the reasons why the train is such a popular option in the land of the rising sun.


	6. First Blood

Chapter 5 - First Blood  
  
On Monday, Izuku's life returned to relative normalcy. He had gone back to school after staying at home the entire week and had gotten an extra week's worth of homework to make up for what he had missed.  
  
That was fine though. His new schedule was pretty open at the moment. He was still looking for someplace to train, but due to the realities of the situation, he had been forced to reorganize his training regiment.  
  
If he really was going to train at someplace where he was so far away he needed someone to drive him there, he couldn't do his old regular routine of 3 hours training a day.  
  
Instead, he would do a new, more concentrated amount of training. Since Saturday and Friday were the only days he could be assured someone could drive him, he needed to put all his training into those two days specifically.  
  
He would spend the entire weekend training, putting himself to the absolute limit each time.  
  
There was still around 250 days until the Hero School exams came around, but if you took those away and only took 2 days per week, his amount of training days suddenly got a lot tighter.  
  
On one hand, it made him nervous, very nervous. On the other hand, he had gotten used to his training by now. He enjoyed his training. Well, maybe it was time to take it to the next level.  
  
If nothing else, he had learned from his first bitter lesson.  
  
At the moment though, it wasn't his future training that was on his mind. Nor was it his homework. No, at the moment, Izuku was doing something he'd gotten way too used to over the last month.  
  
Rummaging through other people's trash.  
  
More specifically, he was back at the beach where he had first unlocked his quirk, ripping the wheels of the old cars thrown here.  
  
Logically, it was the only realistic option. He didn't have the cash for a punching bag, and his mom wouldn't begin her new job for over 4 months from now.  
  
Even taking into consideration that this was training he could do at home instead of at whatever spot he would be training at, that was still over half the time he had left before the exams.  
  
He couldn't wait that long. So, he had to get one another way. Youtube had thankfully told him how. A freestanding punching bag made out old car tires, some bolts, and screws to connect them together, and a ton of old bricks in the lowest and largest of the tires, to stabilize it with weight at the bottom.  
  
It was an easy design to make, with the only thing he really needed to bring on his own was a screwdriver to use to punch holes for the screws(The guide had said to use a power drill, but he didn't have one, so superhuman strength and a metal stick would need to do.  
  
He'd assemble it here, then carry the thing home. Later he'd go and find bricks for the bottom.  
  
Thank god for the blessing that was youtube. Originally, he'd been thinking he'd have to scrounge the trash bin of gyms, hoping someone threw out a punching bag that wasn't too broken, that he could have repaired, but frankly, this was easier, cheaper, and didn't require him to install something to hold it.  
  
Instead, he had a tower of tires, that he could easily replace if he did accidentally destroy them. Cheaper, easy to replace, and presumably effective for his goals of control over his punches.  
  
He really needed to achieve that. Even if he hadn't learned his lesson from the whole log fiasco, he still was reminded about it every time he had done punching training. The way everything just broke under his hands anytime he put any weight behind his blows.  
  
It was easier to adjust with his grip strength, but that was mainly just instinct. You got used to doing it subconsciously over time.  
  
Punching? Not so much.  
  
Whenever he would be fighting anyone in the future, unless they were superhumanly durable, he would need to hold back.  
  
Over the course of the week, he'd spent home, he'd been looking up videos of All Might, the man who had originally inspired him into becoming a hero in the first place.  
  
When he had been a little kid, All Might had always seen so cool to him. For good reason too, but it was only now, that he had strength of his own, that he really understood All Might's power.  
  
All might was capable of easily knocking out pretty villain Izuku had ever seen him fight, and despite having what was probably the strongest super strength quirk in history, he still had a level of control where he could both easily knock down regular crooks with no problem and not horribly maim any of them.  
  
He was amazing. Far beyond Izuku's level.  
  
He had watched other heroes with strength quirks too, and it was the same in all of them. More than sheer power, it was control that defined their performance as heroes.  
  
It was as Stick had said though. It didn't come naturally to him. He'd have to keep at it until it did. And that probably would take months and months of work.  
  
\---  
  
The man from the woods was watching.  
  
It was from a distance, but it could feel him. Strange man, the one who did not see. How could he watch without seeing? Did he possess powers of feeling emotions, as it did? Or was it echo based?  
  
It did not know. But it was certain it could watch without seeing. It had seen the blind of this species. How they were always careful, slow, methodical. And the lack of knowing the beauty of sight.  
  
That more than anything made this one stand out amongst all the rest. This race was built and dependant on sight, more than any of their other senses.  
  
That was common amongst the peoples of the universe, but not universal.  
  
The strange man stood out. He did not move carefully, nor slowly. He was methodical though.  
  
It had helped the host.  
  
It should be grateful for that, but the feeling of this man… There was something about him… Something it could not pinpoint. It did not feel like the rest of the race. Not the ones with power, anyway. Yet he had powers, it was certain of that.  
  
What did it mean?  
  
No matter. For the moment, he was far away, he was no threat to them.  
  
No, what worried it at the moment was the host. The host was fragile and thus depend on its power to succeed.  
  
This was good. Usually. But it had not finalized the bond yet. They had overcome the critical point, but the final stage was still far away.  
  
That was a problem.  
  
As it was, their power was starting to manifest in strength and stabilizing, but it was not anywhere close to the level it should be after 40 days.  
  
And then there was itself. It could manifest a form now, but it was not it's true form. It was not the second skin. It's… It's mark had not returned yet. It was all just black.  
  
It did not think it would return in full before the bond finalized.  
  
Unfortunately, there was… A deadline. It wasn't sure what he was counting down to, but its host had begun with the habit of writing a number on a tablet, then crossing out one or two numbers each sunrise, and replacing it with a new one.  
  
It had not mastered any of the languages this species used yet, but I had easily realized the meaning of its numbers.  
  
From what it had seen on the tablet on the wall, they had a bit over 250 cycles of the planet remaining, before the deadline was reached.  
  
That should be enough time. Provided the host did not perish before they reached that point.  
  
\---  
  
"So, a strength quirk eh?" Davis-san said in a jovial tone. "Never knew quirks could skip a generation."  
  
"Skip a generation? What do you mean?"  
  
"Oh right, Hisashi never told you much about your gramps, did he? Well, don't go dig deeper into that well Izuku, but Hisashi's old man had a strength quirk too."  
  
Looking at him, it was kinda insane to Izuku that Davis-san was as old as his parents. The man looked like he was in his early twenties, which Izuku had always assumed was due to a quirk, like Miss Bakugou.  
  
"Yeah, mo-My parents never really talk much about my grandparents. Not on Dad's side anyway."  
  
Which was kinda an understatement. One of the few crystal clear memories Izuku had of his dad, had been when the older Midoriya had taken him aside and told him pretty sternly to Never ask about his grandfather. Ever.  
  
"Anyway, it's not really a strength quirk per se. I… Kinda spawned this being of black liquid, and I draw power from it, which happens to include super strength."  
  
"Really? Where is it then?"  
  
"My shirt. It… It's fused into it right now."  
  
"Huh. Yeah, that's not quite like the old bastard's quirk."  
  
David was one of his father's oldest friends, but to Izuku he had always just been the apothecary owner they bought all their medicine from.  
  
Which was kinda a shame, given he seemed like a pretty friendly guy.  
  
Like his dad, David was an immigrant from America, in fact, according to his mom, they had moved here together before Hisashi met Inko.  
  
In the very homogeneous Japan, David stood out from the crowd a lot. Dark brown skin which clearly showed he had ancestors from Africa, a massive 2 meters in height, and tattoos of a jaguar on his arms.  
  
Though more common than it had been before the emergence of quirks, people of African descent were still pretty rare in Japan, the regular average height was nowhere near what David's was, and though the Yakuza had been relegated to the dustbin of history, the cultural dislike of tattoo's remained, making people who wore them pretty rare.  
  
All in all, he looked pretty intimidating, but really, he was a swell guy. The fact he took time out of his schedule to drive Izuku for nearly two hours proved that.  
  
"He just had a pretty straightforward strength quirk. I guess your powers are unrelated after all."  
  
"Yeah, it sounds that way."  
  
"Eh, nothing wrong with that. Just means you get to make your powers your own. So, what school you planning to try and enter into?"  
  
"Yuei," Izuku answered without hesitation.  
  
"Yuei… How strong is your quirk exactly? Like, can you lift a literal ton, or…"  
  
"I can lift several hundred Kilo's no problem. On Monday I carried come sacks of bricks that collectively probably weighed around 300 kilos."  
  
"Hm… not too bad then. Well, I hope you manage it. If you don't though, don't take it too hard. My brother tried to get into it. Got crushed in the entrance exam, and he was so distraught over it, he gave up hero prospect entirely."  
  
That sounded… Kinda depressing.  
  
"My point is, don't fret too much if you didn't manage to get into the top school. There are hundreds of hero schools in japan, anyone of them willing to take on people who didn't make it through Yuei's robot gauntlet."  
  
Izuku blinked.  
  
"Robot gauntlet?"  
  
"Oh yeah, that's not really public info. Probably shouldn't be telling you about it." He paused for a moment. "Ah, but what the hell, why not. The entrance exam has two stages, the regular written part, and a physical one. The physical one is the one that makes sure so few appliers actually make it into Yuei."  
  
"It's… Related to robots?"  
  
"Yep. They throw you into a fake training city with this bunch of robots. The test is basically how many of those you can manage to destroy."  
  
"How… how strong are these robots?"  
  
"Offensively they're garbage. They look tough, but really, the only thing they're there for is testing the students' offensive powers. Whether you can break them or not."  
  
"You… you know a lot about this test."  
  
"My brother's perseptive Izuku-Kun. Really perceptive. Unfortunately, he didn't have the offensive power that Yuei demands of it's students. So he didn't make it."  
  
Robots. Just… robots he had to destroy. That… didn't sound too bad. He could do that. Probably.  
  
First, though he had to actually learn some control. Then he could work on pushing these powers to the limit.  
  
"So… Your brother just gave up trying to be a hero?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess seeing just how power was expected of him kinda broke his spirit. Now, he's planning on becoming a police officer. Not sure how he made that jump, but whatever. It's his choice. If he can manage it."  
  
He sounded kinda bitter about his brother's choices.  
  
"So… you don't think he'll manage it as a policeman?"  
  
"I think it's stupid to try and run around fighting superhumans armed with only a gun when you couldn't manage it with your actual powers. It's kinda backwards like that. But whatever. It's his choice."  
  
A short awkward pause followed. Izuku tried to break it.  
  
"Thanks for driving me."  
  
"You've said that 4 times now. You don't need to thank me Izuku-Kun. I'm just doing my friends a solid. It's what real men do. I don't need thanks for doing it."  
  
\---  
  
Half an hour later, they finally reached their destination.  
  
A random spot in the middle of nowhere, the only real marker being a large stone by the road.  
  
"Se you at nine Izuku-Kun."  
  
With a salute with his middle and index finger pointing out from his fist, David drove away.  
  
21.00  
  
He had roughly 11 hours to train. Here, quite far from any settlement, he should not have to worry about being discovered by random people.  
  
The downside was of course that he needed someone to pick him up, as his only alternative was to run all the way back home. He could do that, but it would be quite a trip, and he would need to run all the way back home. He hadn't put his endurance to that kind of test before.  
  
Well, maybe it was about time he did.  
  
After making sure he still had this exact spot saved on his phone, then putting his phone away in his, backpack Izuku began to run. And he kept running for 4 hours straight.  
  
\---  
  
Izuku's entire wardrobe was covered in sweat, and every breath he made felt like someone had jabbed a knife into both of his lungs.  
  
It had been a long time since Izuku had just run himself ragged. Not since before he discovered his quirk. Back in his old training grounds, he had never actually managed to push his running capacity to the limit.  
  
Oh, he had run fast, as fast as could manage to, but he had never actually put how long he could run to the absolute test before.  
  
He should probably have stopped long before he did. But the adrenaline had been pumping through his veins, keeping him going, downplaying any pain or strain he might have felt as he pushed himself to beyond his limits.  
  
His quirk, in turn, had done the same, Enjoyment of the moment ringing through his mind.  
  
All had gone fine. So long as he kept running. Then he had stopped to take a break for lunch, and the adrenaline had worn off. Leaving him as he was now. Lying flat on his back, holding his burning lungs.  
  
Every breath was pain. Knives in his sides gouging out his lungs.  
  
It took roughly 15 minutes before his lungs went back to normal and the pain lessened into just a deep ache.  
  
Okay, so another lesson learned. Adrenaline could keep him going through a lot of pain, but the moment it was gone, that pain would hit him like a truck.  
  
At least… At least it wasn't an actual injury like with his foot. It hurt like hell itself, but he hadn't actually been damaged. Just a quick rest, some food and he would be back on his feet to train more.  
  
He had to train more, far, far more. And when it came down to it, this was what training was all about, pushing oneself to the limit and beyond.  
  
Next, he would do long jumps for 4 hours, and after that… Actually, he would do jumps for the rest of the day. The only way he was ever going to master landing, was if he jumped again and again and again until he instinctually mastered landing on his feet.  
  
He would avoid any ravines though. He had discovered several, not too different than the one he had fallen down over a week ago.  
  
This place in the wilderness was in many ways just the old training ground writ large. It was a massive forest, but whereas the old place had been clearly well-trodden and well-visited during day time, this place was true wilderness.  
  
It was perfect for them to train and master what they could do.  
  
And he would not make the same mistake as last time. Any mistake he made, he would learn from, and make sure not to repeat.  
  
He would not have another horrible accident as a result of his own stupid decision.  
  
And he was right. During the remainder of his time here, he would not suffer any major injuries as a result of mistakes in his training.  
  
However, not all injuries came as a mistake on his own part. As the Izuku would learn on his 8th month of training here.  
  
\---  
  
The winds were blowing hard, and cold. Though the frost was obvious, no snow covered the ground, a result of rain having cleared it away last week. All in all, it had been a miserable new year for pretty much everyone.  
  
Not for him though.  
  
Stick had been right when he said that even a small passive resistance to cold made all the difference in winter.  
  
Winter was a time Izuku had always been a fan off, but generally only if he was dressed in a heavy winters coat.  
  
Now though, he was dressed in his usual attire for training. A set of training clothes so worn after months and months of training that they had any color anymore whatsoever.  
  
The cold did not bother him. Which was good, because he only had a couple of more sessions left to train before it was time to see how far he'd come.  
  
The specter of the Yuei entrance exams loomed through Izuku's mind, like a shadow from a tower.  
  
He was mixed in how to feel about it. On one hand, he felt confident in his level of control. It had taken him well over a half year of training to really begin to master the simple act of control.  
  
But it had all been worth it.  
  
Punching especially had been a challenge, and he kept doing it every single day. But he had gotten control there too.  
  
His mastery of what he could do did not worry Izuku.  
  
The problem was his limits.  
  
When he started out, Izuku had assumed that he could become stronger simply by training, really, really hard. It hadn't worked.  
  
It wasn't before two months ago, that he had finally accepted it, after pushing himself to the absolute limit once again and comparing himself to how he had been starting out.  
  
While the results were a bit different, that probably had more to do with the fact he had originally done the recordings while training in sand.  
  
It made sense though. After all, his powers weren't a basic strength quirk. He got his powers from the being he had spawned.  
  
He was an idiot for not realizing that sooner. No matter how hard he pushed his body, he wasn't going to increase his actual strength that way.  
  
That wasn't how his powers worked.  
  
The real problem was that he hadn't been able to find any other way to boost his strength.  
  
His quirk for his part had grown more docile as of late. The actual emotions he sent into his mind had become much stronger, but the times he actually did had decreased to the point he could go days without feeling it.  
  
He didn't understand it at all. If there was one true failure on his part, it was the fact he hadn't been able to figure out anything with the quirk himself. He had not been able to find a way to communicate with it, which was really bad.  
  
Right now though, he didn't think about any of that. He just did a regular day of training. He justified it as keeping himself in shape until the entrance exams came, but the truth was that he didn't know what else to do.  
  
So he trained, fine-tuning his control as best he could.  
  
Like with the old forest, Izuku had learned a lot about this place in his time here.  
  
He had learned the hills, the ravines, the rivers. He'd meet 4 bears in this place, none of whom he had had any problems outrunning, or see coming thanks to his quirk.  
  
He'd also seen various oddities. People who had used their quirks to carve stuff into the rock, an old crashed plane overgrown with plant life, and a field that was strangely kept well cut at all times, and had a road leading to it.  
  
Of these oddities, Izuku had wondered the least about the field with the trimmed grass. Mayhaps because it was the most mundane of the mysteries, he had just ignored it and assumed someone just kept it well-trimmed to use it for something.  
  
He wasn't far off with that assumption.  
  
It was as he was running past the small field, that someone teleported right into the middle of it.  
  
Izuku froze and just stared at the person, a woman with long hair and upraised arms, her hands glowing with a purple light.  
  
Izuku stared at her, the woman's back towards him as she muttered something he couldn't hear.  
  
His eyes went down to her waist, where she had a holstered gun in her belt.  
  
DANGER  
  
He didn't need to feel his quirk scream the feelings of absolute danger and vulnerability into his mind, but it certainly didn't hurt in regards to him making his next decision. As he threw himself behind a tree, the last thing he saw of the field, was several other people materializing from nothing, in flashes of purple energy.  
  
As he clung himself up against the wood, making sure no part of him stuck out, he began to breathe heavily, before forcing a hand over his mouth.  
  
He didn't know who these people were, but carrying guns meant they were one of two broader categories. Either they were policemen or the national defense force. Or they were criminals. Which given they had just teleported into a field with a quirk user, was a pretty sure bet. Either way, he DID Not want to be discovered by them.  
  
"<They're late.>" An annoyed tone, deep and loud, spoke in English. Izuku wasn't well enough versed in the various forms of English to recognize the accent, but he had watched enough English movies to know it wasn't from the USA or England.  
  
"<Yeah, yeah, we know boss. This asshole's almost never at time.>"  
  
This voice was way less deep, though it had the same unknown accent.  
  
"<Well, you guys know the drill.>"  
  
To his horror, Izuku began to hear footsteps as the men began to walk around, and at least one guy was heading in his direction!  
  
Panic, sheer panic gripped him for a moment. He had to run, to bolt, to move, if he stayed here he'd be discovered!  
  
His quirk, suddenly and without warning, slid out from his shirt and began to quickly cover his entire body.  
  
What the hell was it doing now? This time, somehow the black liquid did not actually hinder his sight. In fact, his eyes felt… well, weird was the best way to put it.  
  
Still, this new shock did nothing to dampen his fears. At least not until he saw that the liquid began to turn him transparent.  
  
Because that was a thing it could do.  
  
What?  
  
As a man with a drawn gun walked past him, looking from left to right behind the trees, he did not see the now transparent Izuku, and just kept moving on.  
  
Izuku began to breathe again.  
  
As he held his hand up in front of his face, he saw that he wasn't truly invisible. The vague outline of his hand was still there, and it was really easy to see it as he moved. When he didn't move, however, it was really hard to see it.  
  
"<All clear, here!>" The man who passed him yelled out, before going back towards the field.  
  
To Izuku's dismay, he choose to stand right between his tree and the one to it's side.  
  
He didn't look in Izuku' a direction though. Instead, he just looked out into the forest with a bored expression. The man was clearly not taking this seriously.  
  
Izuku however, took the gun in his hand, very, very seriously.  
  
The man was clearly American or European, with tanned skin, and a shaved head.  
  
He wore a fine black business suit, though rather than fine shoes, he instead wore military boots.  
  
"<Fucking cold.>" He swore as he clearly visibly shivered. The man took out a cigarette from a sleeve and lit it up with a flame from his finger.  
  
So, a fire quirk. Usually, Izuku would have speculated what he could do, but at the moment, the only thing he could focus on was keeping his breathing quiet, and praying to any deity that existed for this guy not to discover him.  
  
And so it went for 20 minutes.  
  
Izuku clinging up against a tree, praying not to be discovered, and the men around all finishing their search and taking up positions.  
  
The men were clearly waiting for someone. Izuku could hear clear swearing about the guy who was late, and how cold it was.  
  
These men hated the cold.  
  
Finally, the sound of a car driving up the road.  
  
The man by his tree tensed up, and turned to look into the field, and not into the woods.  
  
If Izuku had been more confident, this would have been the moment to slowly, and carefully begin to walk away from the area.  
  
This was the first time in his life the boy had faced mortal danger, however. Not too surprisingly, he made the choice to stay put, and desperately just wait it out and hope he wasn't noticed before they left.  
  
He could hear the sound of a car stopping and people stepping out.  
  
"<Well you took your sweet-ass time getting here!>"  
  
"<Eh, things came up. Anyhow, you got the goods?>"  
  
"<Sure, 4 times the usual amount of trigger.>"  
  
Drug dealers. These were drug dealers.  
  
At that moment, Izuku realized that everything that made this place so great for his training, also made it great for criminal meetings. It was isolated, far from any city, and if something happened, no hero was going to show up.  
  
If he was discovered, he'd have to either escape on his own, or he would die. Even if he did call the police, there was no way in hell anyone would get here in time.  
  
There was the sound of some walking and rummaging around.  
  
"<Yeah, this is Trigger alright. And 4 times the regular amount.>"  
  
"<As we agreed. Now. The File.>"  
  
"<yeah, yeah, don't get your pants in a twist. Asuka?>"  
  
Some other sounds Izuku couldn't make out the origin from.  
  
"<You sure, you don't need help from us? We could help you out with the kidnapping you know.>"  
  
Kidnapping? Who? He kinda hoped the man would say the unfortunate victim's name, but he didn't.  
  
"<We require no further assistance from your King of Evil. We are here to recover one of our own. No more, no less.>"  
  
"<If you say so, still I thi->" The sound of Izuku's phone went off.  
  
Someone had chosen this moment to call him. Either his mom or one of their family friends.  
  
For Izuku, the world froze. He could feel it as every single person there turned around to look towards the source of the sound.  
  
The only man Izuku could see, the man between the trees, was staring dumbfoundedly at the source, clearly hearing it from Izuku's pocket, yet not seeing anything.  
  
He hesitated for a moment.  
  
That hesitation saved Izuku's life.  
  
It was time to go.  
  
Izuku sprung in a jump, away from the tree.  
  
As he landed, the spot he had just been hiding at exploded into fire.  
  
He didn't turn around to look through.  
  
Instead, he began running. Running as fast as he had ever run in his entire life. He didn't understand the mechanics behind it, but as he began running, he saw the transparency violently fade, and the black liquid retreated to his jacket.  
  
No time to think about that. Run.  
  
The bullets began to fly. A slender tree at his side splintered from a gunshot ripping it in half. Something whizzed right over his head. His arm exploded in pain.  
  
Izuku screamed, but he did not stop running. If he stopped running, he died.  
  
Instead, he changed course to the left. Towards a ravine. Could they jump it? He could. He hoped. If they couldn't jump it, they were screwed with no way to cross other than the bridge 7 kilometers downstream.  
  
The ravine was maybe one meter wider than the one back in the old forest, but it was much deeper and steeper.  
  
You couldn't just climb up from it if you fell down. It was one of the reasons he had avoided it completely.  
  
As he ran, he kept hearing the sounds of gunshots, and other sounds, sounds of fire, but they fell further and further behind.  
  
The bullets stopped almost hitting him, thank God.  
  
He ran for several minutes before the sight came. A ravine, dividing the west and east of this forest.  
  
He sprung, but he didn't spring to the very edge. Instead, he crunched down a meter from the edge, then sprung.  
  
It was close. Damned close. He hit the edge, and as he feared it would, it crumbled beneath him. However, expecting this, he threw himself forward, managing to grab on to a tree root.  
  
He gripped it tightly, then climbed up the tree before stepping down unto the ground.  
  
A Gunbarrel materialized in front of his face, in a flash on purple light, along with the woman holding it.  
  
He saw the motion of her fingers as she was pulling the trigger.  
  
He wrenched his head to the right and felt his left ear explode in pain as the gunpowder burst aflame in the barrel and sent the bullet flying right by his ear, missing it with only 3 centimeters.  
  
His left hand closed around the barrel and crushed it in his grip. He wrenched the thing from her grip, eliciting a groan of pain from the woman.  
  
He thought he might have broken one of her fingers.  
  
Rage flowed through his mind.  
  
He socked her straight in the face.  
  
The woman almost fell over the edge, but his hand, grasped her around the wrist and he flung her unto safer ground.  
  
His breath came out in pained hisses, as he held an awkward combat stance expecting her to get back up.  
  
She didn't.  
  
He stared at her for a moment, then hurriedly went over to her to check in her. Had he killed her?  
  
As he knelt over her his fear abated. No, she was alive, just unconscious. And with broken fingers.  
  
He jumped back as her phone began to ring.  
  
For a brief moment he just stared at it, then he made a decision.  
  
He hastily pulled out her phone from her pocket. As he fumbled, he realized he had trouble moving his right hand. Strange. He had been able to form a fist seconds ago. Why did it feel so weird?  
  
The arm was covered in the black substance of his quirk, as well as blood.  
  
Don't think about it.  
  
He took the phone, then as he began to run again, he declined the caller, a guy called "Hammerhead", and instead called up the police.  
  
"Hello, this is the police." A polite tone answered.  
  
"HI, I'M CALLING ABOUT A MEETING BETWEEN DRUG DEALERS IN ASHURA FOREST!"  
  
The policeman tried to speak, but Izuku just continued.  
  
"THEY ARE DEALING WITH TRIGGER, AND THEY ARE PLANNING TO KIDNAP SOMEONE, I DON'T KNOW WHO."  
  
"Who is this?" The policeman asked in a confused tone.  
  
Izuku didn't answer, instead, he just kept talking.  
  
"THEY ARE WEST OF THE BIG RAVINE SPLITTING THE FOREST IN TWO. EXCEPT FOR ONE, SHE'S CURRENTLY UNCONSCIOUS ON THE EAST SIDE, BUT SHE'S A TELEPORTER, SO WHEN SHE WAKES BACK UP AGAIN SHE'LL JUST TELEPORT EVERYONE AWAY!"  
  
"ONE OF THE GROUPS HAVE A CAR, BUT I DON'T THINK EVERYONE CAN FIT IN IT. IF YOU GO NOW, YOU CAN PROBABLY CATCH EVERYONE!"  
  
"WHO-" Izuku hung up, then, fumbling out his own phone, he checked the map, making sure he was going the right way, he kept on running home.  
  
\---  
  
It took him 5 hours to run the entire way home, his adrenaline keeping him going the entire way without any stops. The closest thing to a stop he made, was to slow down to send a message to David NOT to come to pick him up. And that he'd get home himself.  
  
He hoped to God David listened to him.  
  
This time, as he ran through the streets, he hadn't cared if anyone saw him as he ran through the city. Thankfully, when he finally reached Mustafa, night had fallen, so not many were out in the street.  
  
He kept going all the way until he reached his own home, opened the door, and collapsed on the floor of the entrance.  
  
As the pain sat into his burning lungs, and his eyes began to swim, Izuku noticed his mom wasn't home.  
  
That meant she wasn't here to see him in pain for the next half hour as his lungs burned, his arm was still in horrible pain from having a hole shot in it, and his ear hurt as much as his foot had.  
  
As he lay on the floor, the black mass, his other half, gently closed around his ear.  
  
The pain in the arm did not abate, but thankfully, his ear felt like a calming soothing liquid entered into it dulling the pain. Which was pretty much what happened.  
  
After his lungs stopped feeling like they had been poked with hot iron rods, he sat up.  
  
At that moment, the only thing he wanted to do was lie down. Sleep. He almost let it happen, but he forced himself to stay awake, as he got back up onto his feet and into the living room.  
  
He sat down on the TV and flipped up news channels. He was still watching the news with a tired and drained expression. Eventually, he did pull out his phone.  
  
It felt like lead, though whether he was tired, or just afraid to call his mom, he didn't know. Either way, he took a deep breath, then clicked the green button.  
  
He'd promised he'd do that after all.  
  
Through his mind, his quirk sent only one emotion. The same it had been sending for hours now. Satisfaction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter im not all that satisfied with. it was originally supposed to be two distinct chapters, but frankly, both ended up being so damned short it would have been a joke to publish them separatly. as such there is a really, awkward timeskip in the middle of it.


	7. Born Again

It was agreed between both the younger and older Midoriya, that Izuku would not train anymore until the exam day came around. 

Izuku was fine with that. The reality was that he hadn't actually gotten more out of it for a while now. He had mastered control, and his strength wasn't growing no matter how much he trained. 

It made logical sense to just lay low and keep calm, and take some time off to lessen the stress. 

Unfortunately, if there was one thing Izuku was not getting less off at the moment, it was stress. 

Unsurprisingly, the aftermath of almost getting killed was the most stressful thing Izuku had ever experienced in his life. But it would have been one thing if that had been the end of it. 

It wasn't. At all. 

On the plus side, the police and heroes had successfully captured both groups, at least according to the news. The bad part came in that apparently one of the criminals had escaped police capture. 

He did not need to be an unprecedented genius to guess which one it had been. It had been the one who could teleport. The only one he was sure could identify him. 

It had lead to some really stressful final days of middle school, as he was terrified she would suddenly appear out of nowhere to take revenge on him. 

It hadn't happened of course. There were tens of thousands of people in this province alone who fit the criteria of a male teenager with green hair. Add the two neighboring provinces, and that number might reach near a hundred thousand. 

There was no way in hell she was going to be able to find him. 

It still didn't make Izuku feel better. There was a distinct difference between knowing something and accepting it to be true. 

Then there was the whole not telling the police about it. 

The anonymous tipper had been mentioned on TV of course, but Izuku had made the choice in the woods not to identify himself, terrified he'd be punished for using his quirk, both for training and for escape. 

His mother had completely agreed with that choice. Hell, when she learned the phone they had taken had been encrusted with Izuku's blood, she had smashed it herself. She wasn't taking chances he could ever be discovered in relation to this. 

By her own explanation, while a normal person might get a slap on the wrist for using their quirk like that, a prospective hero would not. Even if it didn't tank his prospects of getting into a hero school, it would still be a really black mark on his career that would cause him major problems down the line. 

The state did not tolerate people who used their quirks on others without permission. 

The whole conversation had kinda made Izuku rethink his view on the strictness of limitations on quirk usage. He had always thought it made perfect sense only trained heroes could legally use their quirks. The realization anyone who used their quirk to save their own life would likely be punished was… kinda asinine in his opinion. 

His mother had agreed when he had voiced that opinion but had begged him not to say that to anyone else. It wasn't an opinion that would be well received in the hero world. 

She hadn't been wrong. He had looked up the topic, and it was… Complicated. 

Basically, the debate on the topic went all the way back to the infamous Destro, one of the most famous Japanese Villains in history. A man only overshadowed by the legendary All For One, the shadowy figure who had ruled the Japanese underworld in the wake of the societal collapse that came about when quirks emerged. 

It was an incredibly charged topic, and every single hero who had tried to change it had had their careers go down the drain. 

Either way, a deep debate about philosophy wasn't something he had time for now. 

2 days left before the exam that all his efforts, his studying, his mistakes, and successes had all been leading towards. 

God, he was tense.  **Nothing** he did seemed to be calming him down. Not doing research on heroes, not watching videos of heroes, not even videos of All Might managed to calm him down. 

And on top of it all, his quirk had become completely silent over the last week. He didn't even go and watch the TV anymore. Instead, all he did was jump into whatever shirt Izuku was wearing, and if he didn't wear a shirt… Well, it had gotten very awkward. 

Despite all his tenseness though, when it came time to. Sleep that night, Izuku Midoriya fell asleep astonishingly quickly. Unnaturally so. 

It didn't take more than 7 minutes between when his head touched his pillow, and his hands dropped his phone. 

He was out like a turned off light. 

A black liquid oozed out of his nightshirt and began to slowly, methodically, and with great care enveloping the body of Izuku Midoriya. 

**_It was time._ **

\---

From Izuku's bed, rose a figure of complete darkness, like it was clad in shadows. 

Two eyes opened in the figure's skull. Large, and white, and glimmering in the light from the moon outside. 

The figure rose from the bed on steady feet, then it went to the window, and opened it. 

Not heeding the fact that they were 5 stories up, the figure climbed out through the open window. 

It had a destination in mind. One it had picked out months ago. 

\---

Izuku walked down a road by a city neighborhood. At first, he wasn't sure where it was exactly, but he had eventually come to realize where he was. 

This was a place from his childhood. His old neighborhood, the place where Katsuki still lived. It was almost just like Izuku remembered it. The houses, the street signs, the roads. They were all like Izuku had once remembered them. 

As he walked, he passed by Tsubasa's house, a kid he and Katsuki had once hanged out with. 

The door was locked though. He could not enter the yard. 

**-You met this one first. Before the Katsuki.-**

Yeah, that was right. He remembered now. The winged boy was the first friend he made back in kindergarten. He had thought the boy was so cool with his red wings. 

**-A false friend. The first one. But not the last.-**

It was through Tsubasa that he had met Katsuki and Sai. In a way, it had been Tsubasa who had led him and Katsuki together. 

As he walked, he came to an opening to a playground. 

5 kids were inside. Katsuki, Sai, Tsubasa, Izuku, and another boy named Minato. 

Izuku remembered this scene. He had lived through this moment long ago, Minato was on his knees cradling his arm crying. Katsuki had hurt him, just like he would hurt Izuku moments later. 

Izuku was standing between Minato and Katsuki along with the other two of their friends. He was crying. He knew what was coming.

Izuku tried to stop what was going to happen here, but as his hand closed around one of the younger Katsuki's arms, the figure burst into black liquid. Everything else did as well, Izuku, the other boy's, the playground, the sky itself,  **Everything** burst into blackness. 

Everything except Izuku himself. 

Izuku stood in a grey void, a web of white formed beneath his feet, serving as his floor in this place. Despite the darkness, Izuku could see that there was a light here, lightening the greyness wherever he looked like he had a lamp over his shoulder. 

Whenever he turned to try and find the source of the light, it alluded him. 

As he looked out into the void, he realized he was wrong. He wasn't the only thing here. 

Off into the distance, there were webs.  **Enormous** black webs, like that of some humongous spider. They were all around. 

As Izuku looked at them, his breath having caught in his throat, a set of large white eyes. Appeared in the air. The darkness fell where they were, so heavy that not even the light that followed his eyes could penetrate it. 

A spotlight appeared to Izuku's left. The spotlight showed the aftermath of the scene that had just disintegrated. 

Izuku lying on the ground, bruised and battered. Minato tearfully trying to help him up. 

As younger Izuku was about to actually get up, the spotlight vanished and the scene with it.

**-What happened to Minato?-**

The voice asked, sounding generally curious. 

"He… He never played with us again. I think his mom eventually transferred him to another school."

**-Wise woman. Why did this happen?-**

The sound of the voice made it clear it wasn't seeking the actual answer. It wanted to know if Izuku knew. 

"Because Katsuki is a terrible person, who likes beating those weaker than him?" 

That seemed obvious now, detached from sentiments regarding Katsuki. This was who he had always been… Wasn't it?

**-No. That isn't the reason at all.-**

"But-"

**-What you just described was the motivation for one of the main players in this little drama. But he wasn't the only player here. There were Tsubasa and Sai who could both have decided not to follow Katsuki's lead.-**

**-But there was also you. You chose to defend him. Yet the outcome did not change, other than you suffering as Minato did. More in fact. Why?-**

Why? Why had he been beaten up every time he actually tried to stand up to Katsuki? 

"Because… Because he had powers, and I didn't."

**-Exactly. That is the crust of the matter. POWER. It comes in many flavors, direct, soft, political, personal. You know one such flavor. Quirks. You wanted one. So desperately.-**

Another spotlight, this time showing one of Izuku's many, many attempts to breathe fire, or use telekinesis. As it went out, another came in a different spot, this time showing him trying to discover other powers. It went out, and another came in it's place. 

**-Such persistence.-**

"It… It worked didn't it?" 

**-In the sense that you eventually gained powers, yes.-**

The spotlight went out again. 

Then the void disintegrated into dust, and the dust flew all around, as it formed another scene. This time a forest, a ravine. 

Below them, Izuku was lying in the water with a broken foot. 

**-You had powers here, yet you failed. You miscalculated, you misjudged. You lacked experience, knowledge, guidance.-**

"Yeah, but… Stick-San helped me. He gave me advice and guidance."

The hero in red appeared on the other side of the ravine. 

**-Yesss…-** The voice said in grudging agreement. 

**-But he was only there once was he not? You never met him again. However valuable his advice might have been, he was not there for you. During your final training.-**

The scene once again disintegrated. This time it reformed as another forest, a much more wild one. With a plain. 

Izuku went cold, as the men appeared out of the dust. The gunmen. 

**-Stick was not there for you during your first skirmish, was he? Did he hide you from their sight? Did he grant you strength when you needed it? Did he close the wound and stop you from bleeding too. Death?-**

He understood who this was now. 

"This… This isn't a dream is it?" 

**-This is your soul, Izuku Midoriya. Your essence, your mind. Whatever you wish to call it.-**

As Izuku stared at the darkness, he heard the sound of his phone. Once again, the other leaped from his hiding spot, an explosion of flame engulfing where he had been. 

**-As first skirmishes go, this wasn't too bad. You estimated your capacity and limitations well and made a rather remarkable retreat given your limitations. Hell, you even managed to call upon the protectors of law and order.**

That was a pretty fancy way of saying he had run away like a coward. 

**-You wish you didn't need to run, do you not, Izuku?-**

"Yeah."

**-You wish you had more power, do you not Izuku Midoriya? What you have is not enough for you. Not enough at all.-**

Izuku stared at him. Getting stronger, was literarily what he had been trying to do for months. 

He had tried so hard to find some way to talk to his quirk. To Do what he was doing now. 

"I want to get stronger." He finally said. 

- **So, you are willing to finish it?-**

The world was destroyed again, this time as if it were made of glass that suddenly shattered. Once again he was in the void. But this time… 

Beneath him, he saw a symbol. A giant white spider, surrounded by black tar. 

"Finish… Finish what?" 

**-Our BOND Izuku Midoriya. It is nearing completion, the point of. No. Return.-**

Izuku watched as the liquid beneath the web he was standing on began to turn and trash, like a sea during a storm. The white spider began to sink beneath the waves. 

Izuku felt it down to his core. Something was about to happen. Something that could not be undone. In one moment, he saw how fragile it actually was. He could break it. He could stop this. He was in control here, not the other one. 

All he had to do, was force this to stop, and the bond would break. 

**-We will be ONE, Izuku. Together, we can do it all, whatever your dreams desire, WE ca-**

Izuku jumped from the web before it was done speaking. 

Why would he ever want to break this bond? This bond was his future, his life, his dreams. It was the thing that had changed his life around when everything had seemed like it was all doomed to eternal disappointment. 

It was salvation.

It was all he ever wanted. 

He crashed into the black liquid, which embraced him like he was a long lost lover that had finally come home again after countless years apart. 

The white spider rose up to meet him. 

\---

On the top floor of a skyscraper, in a room that had been abandoned for years, a figure seemingly made of living darkness entered from the rooftop, in the middle of the night. 

It was an old skyscraper, used by a bunch of different sales companies. The top floors, however, hadn't been in use since a hero who had made it his home had retired years ago. 

The figure entered a storage room, then it climbed up into a corner of the room, where it began to encase itself in a cocoon of black webs. 

The hours went by. 

01.00.

02.00. 

04.00.

05.43, the web which had been still for hours, began to move. 

05.56, the webs began to break. 

06.12, the cocoon began to crack. 

Finally, at 06.27, an arm  **burst** out of the black cocoon. The arm was a shade of blue so dark it seemed black, even in the sunlight coming in from the windows. 

Another arm  **burst** out from the container, and wrenched it open, as a figure came out into the morning light. The cocoon began to fall apart, then each of the black pieces began to seemingly disintegrate into nothing. 

The figure was of the same ethereal blue that bordered on black. The way the light revealed it, seemed completely unnatural for anything on earth. It was alien. In every way imaginable. 

On it's chest was a symbol. Showcasing a giant white spider, who's legs went around and linked it to an identical spider on the back. On the back of his hands were two white square patches, slightly higher than the skin around it. 

On his head that was like a sleek, smooth mannequin, was two large pure white eyes, like patches. 

\---

Holy shit. 

Izuku felt  **ALIVE** . More alive than he had ever felt in his life. He felt… Strong. He felt like he had become a creature of steel, every sinew alive with power. 

He flexed his arm, and he noticed the complete change in his muscles. Hell, his quirk even parted to let him get a better lock at the skin. 

The arm that had been scrawny was now replaced with ripped muscles, the outline from the scar that the bullet had left being the only thing that marred it. 

It was an unusual scar, with the circle around it being how a scar usually looked, while the inside having completely perfect skin. 

Izuku did not focus on his unusual scar, however. He was far too busy marveling at the changes. He felt amazing! He felt incredible! He felt like he could jump through the air like he was ALL Might himself! 

He could do it! He could- He could…

Flashes of memories began to flood his mind. 

Memories of things that couldn't be, impossible things, things that completely upended everything he had ever thought he knew about the universe. 

Izuku froze completely. 

He just stood there gaping, trying desperately to process it all, until finally the… Thing detached itself from his head and formed a face in front of him. 

This face did not much resemble the struggling mass he had come to know and accept as his quirk. This one was solid, with no drops of black liquid almost falling from it. It also had large, sharp white eyes, and a smile of creepy sharp fangs. 

**"Hello, Izuku."** The voice was like Izuku's, just deeper and without any of the reservation Izuku carried with him.

Izuku just stared at that face, not in fear as was probably how he should have felt. No, he felt only complete and utter shock. 

"You… You're… You're not a quirk, are you?" 

The thing… No, the  **_ALIEN,_ ** Laughed. 

**"Not by any stretch no. My name Izuku is Venom. We are not from around here so to say."**

"You're an alien."

**"Guilty as charged. We are what the universe know as a Klyntar, though you would translate it as-"**

"Symbiote." Izuku said numbly. 

**"Yes."** Venom answered cheerfully. 

Reality set in for Izuku. His quirk was an Alien. A goddamned being from outer space. 

He slumped up against the wall and sank against it until he sat. 

And he had bonded with it. Permanently. 

**"You know, Izuku, nothing has really changed in the grand scheme of things."**

"Nothi-EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED!" He didn't mean to scream. It just… Came out like that. 

He cradled his head as he began hyperventilating. 

"I… I thought I was normal! I thought… I thought I was finally like EVERYONE ELSE! Instead, I'm…" 

What? What was he exactly? Not normal that was for damned sure. 

**"Normal is overrated. What you want is to be extraordinary, is it not? You wanted power, and we are providing it for you. This is what you always wanted, isn't it? To be strong?"**

It was. The truth of that statement burned. He had wanted powers for so many years, that when he finally got them, he didn't even question that it might not be a quirk, even though he really should have. He had been told long ago that it was physically impossible for him to have a quirk. And the doctor had been right. Completely, utterly right. 

**"Look Izuku, it doesn't fucking matter where your powers come from. The end result is the same."**

"What, you mean I should just pretend you're a quirk?" 

**"As opposed to what exactly? Tell everyone that you're bonded to an alien? We've been in quite a few first contacts Izuku, and there are only 2 ways that roads end. Either you're labeled a madman, or you're believed, and you're hunted by the local government for the rest of your life."**

Izuku froze. He hadn't even considered that! Oh, God! He was right. He… He couldn't tell anyone about this. EVER! 

It was amazing how this night had washed all his previous stress, only replace them with WAY more stressful issues. 

"I… I can't tell anyone about it…"

**"Oh, we wouldn't say that. Your mom seems trustworthy enough. Enough that she knowingly breaks the law to protect you. A good parent that one."**

Izuku just stared at Venom. 

"You… WANT me to tell mom?" 

**"Well, Frankly no. We would prefer you to take the secret to your grave. But it has been my experience that most people eventually go nuts keeping shit like this from their family, and everyone else they know."**

**"You, in particular, are a terrible liar on top of everything else. You're going to spill everything the moment your mother asks where we've been, we have no doubt. Better to just get it out of the way at the start."**

Izuku kept staring at Venom. 

He felt surreal. The alien that bonded to him wanted him to tell his mom. That was like literary the exact opposite of every single story he had ever read about something like this. 

Holy shit, this WAS a sci-fi story. Aliens were real. HE was bonded to an alien. 

Suddenly, he shot up. He… He had to get some air. Now! 

\---

Izuku ran out to the roof. 

Venom did not care. The bond had been completed. There was no way to break it now. Venom and Izuku were bound together for the rest of the green-haired boy's life. 

And Venom was  **ALIVE** Again! By Knull it was good to live once more. 

The long chain of memories, stretching back to the very first one, the giant white spider, had returned once again. The colors, the sounds, the  **EMOTIONS!** All of it was back again!

Izuku had gotten a taste of the returning memories as well. He had failed to appreciate their beauty. Oh well. 

There would be battle soon enough. Combat! Blood! Shattered bones all around!

And gruesome horrible vengeance upon all those who would threaten them.

\---

Two things raged inside Izuku Midoriya. 

The first was his natural curiosity, demanding he try and discover the answer to everything he had ever wondered about. The second was his mind trying to comprehend what everything that had just irrevocably changed. 

Venom himself was not helping. 

**"C'mon, jump already!"**

I'm not fucking jumping, that's over a hundred meters! I'll die!"

**"Nah, we won't. See the white patches on your hands? They're web-shooters. They shoot a rope of powerful black web, that we will use to swing through the air from structure to structure. All you have to do is will it. Like this."**

From Izuku's left hand that he had just been gesturing with, a rope of black web shot out with surprising force and hit a large pipe on the other end of the roof. 

Izuku stared at it in shock, while Venom nodded approvingly. 

**"Yes, like that. Now, jump over the ceiling and do it again. Just with the sides of the building this time."**

Izuku instead dropped the web and backed into the guardrail. 

Part of him instantly began to think of the potential of these things, while the other, more saner part of him wondered how the hell things had just been upended so quickly. 

"What do I do, what do I do, what do I do-" 

Venom interrupted him by putting his face right up to Izuku's. 

**"Well Izuku, you have two options. You can either be in denial, or you can DEAL with it."**

Izuku looked into Venom's pupilless eyes. 

**"Has your world changed completely? Yeah, it has. You aren't "normal". You're never gonna be "Normal". But let's put this into perspective. Until one year ago, we were in a prison on the moon. It was a hell of darkness, of nothing, a void where we could not even tell time as our senses long ago abandoned us as nourishment dried up."**

**"We were inside that hell so long, that we forgot everything. Everything we were, everything we dreamed of, Everything we had ever been. And we had been inside that prison so long, that when we were jailed there, the last of the creatures you call dinosaurs still walked this world."**

Izuku's eyes widened. That… That was over 60 million years ago. Venom had been imprisoned all that time? 

What a horrible fate. 

"I'm… I'm sorry."

**"For what? We got out did we not? A random piece rock through space at the exact right angle, and blew our prison to pieces, allowing us, and our ship to escape. Nothing special. Just chance. Just like our meeting at the beach."**

**"Now, if you wish to complain about the fact you are going to achieve your dreams and all your goals, please, do remember that. Your life is good. And it's only going to get better. Very much unlike the hell that was our life, our existence for so, SO LONG."**

Izuku continued to stare at him, but he had calmed down a bit. When Venom put it like that he kinda sounded kinda selfish. What had Venom done wrong exactly? Given him great power?

"So… What happens now?" 

**"Exactly what we were going to do anyway. Continue our path to becoming a warrior of this "Superhuman Society" of yours."**

"No, I mean… Us. I understand what you give me, but… Why are you doing this?" 

There had to be some reason Venom was doing this. And given his disdain for Stick-San, Izuku kinda doubted it was altruism. 

**"Ah, yes. The price for power. Well, it's very simple. We feed on your emotions, and in return, we give you great power."**

"That's… That's it?" 

**"Yes"**

Izuku's mind raced, trying to make sense of that when a question popped into his mind. 

"Wait, if you consume my emotions, won't that make me into an empty shell? Shouldn't I have begun to have  **less** emotions as time went on?" 

**"Not quite. It's a bit hard to explain scientifically, but to use a metaphor, imagine you and your emotions are say… A kettle that's boiling. The kettle produces steam that eventually vanishes into nothing. Your emotions are like that. Only in this case, we are here to feed upon that steam before it dissipates into thin air."**

That… kinda made sense. Sort off. Assuming the laws of physics had an entirely undiscovered field when it came to emotions and the energy it apparently created.

Izuku wanted to ask more questions, but right now he kinda just wanted to get home first. 

He looked down on his suit.

"I'm… Just wearing my sleeping clothes under here aren't I?" 

**"Yes. Is there something wrong with wearing the second skin?"**

Well, on the plus side… He now had a hero outfit. 

"Maybe we shouldn't go out dressed in it until I actually have a hero license. Pretending to be a hero is a crime you know."

Izuku got the distinct impression Venom rolled his eyes on him. 

**"If you insist…"**

The black suit with the giant white spider changed shape… into jeans and a jacket with a giant white spider. Also socks. 

OK, that was… New.

"What  **else** can you do?" 

It wasn't entirely meant as a serious question, just Izuku talking to himself, but Venom answered cheerfully in his mind. 

**-Well, beyond what you have already seen, we can produce breathable air inside the suit, protect from the vacuum of space, stick to surfaces, we can see from every piece of us so it's impossible to sneak up on us, we can sense living creatures around us and their emotions, we have very limited telepathic communication with beings outside our host, and finally, we have a poisonous bite.-**

That… That was quite possibly the most varied powerset Izuku had ever encountered. 

"Any… Anything else I should know?" 

**-Fire and Sonics. We must avoid these. They hurt us. Horribly. Now, let's go home. Time to jump.-**

The hand parts of the suit rematerialized. 

Izuku just stared out over the city. Then he headed back to the doorway leading into the building. 

**-You** **pussy.-**

**\---**

Izuku took the elevator ride down, getting several weird stares from random employees who wondered who the hell this kid with no shoes was. Izuku's natural nervousness didn't help. Thankfully, no one actually called him out on it. 

Once on the floor, he simply walked out of the building. No one stopped him. 

As he began the walk home he considered everything. A large part of him was still stressed out about all of this. He had tons of questions for Venom, the thought of telling his mom absolutely terrified him, and he now realized there was no way in hell he was gonna master any of these new powers before the exam tomorrow. 

But, Venom was right. In the grand scheme of things, nothing  **had** actually changed. His goals hadn't changed, he was still using the same powers he had been for almost a year, and without these powers, he would never be able to achieve his dream. 

He wouldn't be able to help people. And that more than anything else, was the biggest argument to accept these powers. No matter where they came from. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My only regret with this chapter is that I didn't get to end it on the line I had planned for it. Oh, well. That'll come next chapter.


	8. The Exam

It was time. The day Izuku had trained for 10 months had finally come. The day of Destiny. 

Hell, he even got the luxury of being driven there by his mom, with a company car. 

She had hugged him, and wished him the best of luck before he stepped out, and that she was cheering for him all the way. 

The ride itself though had been awkward. Amongst the most awkward things in his life. 

Just give her time, he told himself. She needed time to handle it. 

He had hoped that he would get to test his powers out yesterday. It hadn't happened of course. He had spent the entirety of yesterday with his mom, first building up the courage to tell her, then doing it, and then dealing with the aftermath. 

He'd also learned a lot about symbiote culture and history. There were still a lot of things he did not know though. 

Right now was not the time for that though. Right now he had to pass this exam. 

**-You actually gonna move, or you planning on staying out here until the last possible second for dramatic effect? -**

The first step, get inside. 

"I'm-i'm just psyching myself up."

**-You've been "psyching" yourself up for 5 minutes. Get your ass in gear already.-**

He felt his clothes begin to move, trying to force him to move. 

"OK, OK I'll go."

He took one deep breath, and, still shivering with nervousness, he took his first step through the gate. 

And he immediately tripped over his own two feet. 

With his reflexes having become way better he saw the ground rush up and instantly his arms shot out to catch himself so he didn't face plant into the ground. 

However, that didn't happen, as suddenly he stopped falling. He blinked and realized he was floating in the air. 

"You okay?" A cheerful kind voice asked.

"Eh?" Was all he got out, before a hand closed around his jacket, lifted him and put him back on his feet. 

The person who was speaking was a girl around Izuku's age, with long brown hair, two round pink spots on her checks, and scarred hands. She was dressed in a heavy coat, obviously to deal with the February frost. 

"Sorry for stopping you with my quirk like that, but we'll… It's a bad omen to trip and fall."

A girl was talking to him. 

Izuku's face went up like a fire, and his body just froze up. 

The girl, oblivious to Izuku's discomfort, turned her head towards the main building and continued, still with a big smile on her face. 

"Man, this sure is nerve-wracking isn't it."

"Ya… Uh… Um…" Was all Izuku managed to stammer out. 

"Well, good luck to the both of us. See Ya." 

Then she walked off towards the main building whistling a tune. 

Izuku just stared after her, processing what had just happened. 

He… He had talked to a girl! An actual girl! 

Venom was quick to pop that balloon. 

**-You didn't say a fucking, word to her! Goddamn, you're a loser with women. Fuck, we need to work on that.-**

Izuku bit his lip. "So-sorry." He muttered. 

**-Don't fucking apologize to us, get your ass moving!-**

Izuku winced, then finally, he did, cheeks still blushing furiously. 

**-So, what do you think her connections are to Toshinori Yagi?"**

"Her… Her what?" 

**-You don't recognize her?-**

"Should I…?" 

**-The second day of our bonding, when you were walking home with a door over your head. She was the girl trailing behind the man you called Toshinori Yagi.-**

Izuku blinked. He… he did remember a girl who followed after Toshinori that day. That was her? 

\---

Venom developed a seething hatred for the man called Present Mic. from the moment he opened his damned mouth and started talking. 

_ "WELCOME TO TODAY'S LIVE PERFORMANCE!!! EVERYBODY SAY HEY!!!"  _

The voice was loud and painful to their senses, though not actually truly damaging to them. It wasn't focused. 

It easily could be though. 

The room did not reply to the man's request for a "Hey", probably because he asked for it in a foreign language. 

Finally, the man moved on after a silence. He did not seem bothered by his audience's lack of reply, given he continued on in that horrible, cheerful, enthusiastic voice. 

_ "WELL, THAT'S COOL, MY EXAMINEE LISTENERS!! I'M HERE TO PRESENT THE GUIDELINES OF YOUR PRACTICAL!!! ARE YOU READY?!"  _

This time, rather than gambling on them answering, he simply went and shouted  _ "YEAHH!!!"  _ himself. 

Izuku, despite sharing a large part of Venom's pain, began to fawn over the man from afar, like he was a cute small animal. 

"It's the voice her Present Mic. wow…!! I listen to his radio show every week! It's inspiring. I guess all the Yuei teachers are pro heroes." 

Then he kept on muttering. 

**-Wait, is he that guy who you listen to at the end of every week?-**

"Yeah, he is…!" 

No wonder Venom didn't like the guy. They hated listening to that weekly recording with Izuku. 

_ "THIS IS HOW THE TEST WILL GO MY LISTENERS!!! YOU'LL BE EXPERIENCING TEN-MINUTE LONG" "MOCK CITYSCAPE MANEUVERS"!!!" _

_ "BRING ALONG WHATEVER YOU WANT!!! AFTER THIS PRESENTATION, YOU'LL EACH HEAD TO YOUR ASSIGNED TESTING LOCATION!!!"  _

_ "O.K!?" _

More awkward silence. 

_ "EACH SITE IS FILLED WITH THREE KINDS OF FAUX VILLAINS!!! _

_ "POINTS ARE PROVIDED FOR DEFEATING EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR DIFFICULTY LEVEL!!! USE YOUR QUIRKS TO DISABLE THESE FAUX VILLAINS, AND EARN POINTS!!! THAT'S YOUR GOAL LISTENERS!!!"  _

So, the David guy was right, this was a robot test. Well, unless they had someone with the ability to conjure up enemies for them. That was fully possible too. 

_ "OF COURSE, PLAYING THE ANTIHERO AND ATTACKING OTHER EXAMINEES ARE PROHIBITED!!!" _

Well duh, this was a warrior training facility. You didn't hammer out working soldiers by putting them against each other in combat at the start. 

"MAY I ASK A QUESTION?" 

Venom needed a moment to look around for the source of the new voice. It was a tall man dressed in white, wearing glasses and with well-combed dark blue hair. 

Present Mic. gave a thumbs up, signaling that the man could indeed ask a question.

"THERE APPEARS TO BE NO FEWER THAN FOUR FAUX VILLAINS ON THIS HANDOUT WE WERE GIVEN! SUCH AN ERROR, IF IT IS ONE, IS HIGHLY UNBECOMING OF YUEI, JAPAN'S TOP HERO ACADEMY!!!" 

"WE ARE ALL HERE TODAY, IN THE HOPES OF BEING MOLDED INTO MODEL HEROES!!!" 

It was all sensible stuff to ask about… Right up until he finished that questioning by turning around and calling out them and Izuku. 

"AND YOU, WITH THE CURLY HAIR!" 

Izuku froze in his seat upon being called out, as the tall boy glared at them. 

"YOU'VE BEEN MUTTERING THIS WHOLE TIME… IT'S DISTRACTING!!! IF THIS IS SOME SORT OF GAME TO YOU, PLEASE LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!" 

"Sorry…" Izuku said weakly as he stopped his muttering. 

Venom, on the other hand, manifested from Izuku's jacket and bared his teeth towards the boy. On one hand, he didn't care for Izuku's muttering themselves. On the other hand, the asshole had insulted them and tried to bully them to Quit.

After that, that accursed Present Mic. went and explained that the 4th faux villain was a non-point obstacle to avoid. Venom had assumed the 4th one was some hidden boss, but they were wrong on that account. 

Oh well, nothing had really changed. They still had to destroy as many robots as possible. The only thing that had changed was that they knew now that there was only a very limited time. Still, there was more than enough time to rise to the top here. 

\---

Izuku was shivering like it he had jumped into the arctic ocean. 

**-Forget the web-shooters, we won't need them today. Not camouflage either. Just stick to kicks and punches. Keep it simple, and we'll triumph over the masses!-**

Keep it simple. Right. Just… Just keep it simple Izuku. 

All around him, all his fellow examinees were also prepping for battle. 

**-We'll do it Izuku, we'll crush all opposition, and rise as the undisputed masters of this arena, standing in the broken remains of our foes! Remember, you are far stronger than when you faced your first skirmish, and these robots won't even fight back!"**

Right. He had actually been in battle before. Well, he had run away from a battle. He had knocked out the teleporter though. That was something. 

He was pulled out of Venom's pep talk by the sight of the brown-haired girl who had prevented him from falling earlier. 

Right… He hadn't actually thanked her for that. 

**-Wanna try a second round talking to the opposite sex? You can hardly do worse than the first time. At least if you actually say something at all.-**

"I… I wanna thank her for earlier."

**-Then do it now, before things start.-**

Right. Izuku began to walk towards her. 

An arm suddenly grasped around his shoulder. 

"You there, what do you think you're doing!?" 

It was the scary guy from the auditorium. 

**-This asshole again?! What the hell does he want now?-**

"...Walking?"

The boy the glasses wasn't amused. 

"That girl is clearly doing her pre-battle meditation, do you wish to interfere with that?" 

It… Didn't look much to Izuku like she was meditating, more like she was trying to fan herself with her own hand. It was unusually hot here come to think of it, way hotter than the rest of the city. 

"I… I…" 

"Why are you even here? You are clearly not mentally prepared for this, you're shaking with fear, you stutter anytime anyone asks you a question, and-"  **"Fuck off asshole!"**

Venom, to Izuku's shock and embarrassment, came out of the shoulder of his jacket and entered the conversation. 

"Pardon?" 

**"WE told you to FUCK OFF. Scedadle. Mind your own damned business, and don't bother us."**

Izuku had suddenly stopped shaking completely and instead froze in shock and embarrassment as  **everyone** turned to look at them. 

Great. Perfect. 

The tall guy was completely taken aback, though perhaps not for the best reasons. 

"Such language! You wish to become a model hero with that attitude?" 

"No, i-  **"How we choose to speak isn't your damned business boy. Nor is your opinion wanted here. This is a battle test, not a test about communications and public image. Now seriously, FUCK OFF."**

The tall boy didn't budge. 

"So you think strength is the only thing that matters to be a hero?" 

**"No, I also think you shouldn't bother someone out of the blue for petty reasons, but as for strength…"** He grinned.  **"Stick around, you're gonna see something spectacular today."**

At that point, Izuku put an end to the conversation by quickly walking off as fast as he could without actually running. 

"What the hell was that!?" He asked Venom in an exasperated tone, the moment they were a bit off from the rest.

**"We told him to Fuck off, what did it look like?"**

"You can't just tell people to fuck off if they're a bit impolite!" 

**"Well, if you could have handled him, then we wouldn't have to step in, now would we?"**

Izuku was about to reply when the words  _ "... AND BEGIN!"  _ was suddenly broadcast with no warning. 

**-Showtime!-**

The black mass enveloped him from head to toe, his eyes got that strange feeling he always got when they changed, and beneath his clothes, his second skin formed over his flesh. 

He blinked. 

**-Get going! Now or never!-**

He sprang into action before Present Mic was done telling everyone to get a move on. 

\---

**-It'll be just like the forest, just keep moving, keep the momentum, don't ever fucking stop!-**

He was in full sprint when the first robot burst out of a wall. 

It looked like someone had given wheels and arms to a couple of multi rocket launchers. 

Somehow, he had expected to feel fear here, but he didn't. Compared to how it was nearly being killed by bullets back in the forest, these things just couldn't bring out fear in him. 

After all, they wouldn't kill him. 

They weren't a threat. 

His foot went back for prep and he kicked the robot's head from below and sent it flying like an American football. 

The robot instantly dropped. 

He blinked. He had assumed he'd need to deal way more damage to these things before that happened. But no… These things weren't really meant for combat, they were meant to test the offensive capacity of the examinees. 

Not just their attack power, but how fast you could take them out. Once damaged, they'd go down easily. 

As he came to that realization, he could hear the sound of the rest of his block finally catching up. 

Keep moving. 

He began sprinting again. 

\---

As Izuku moved through the small "city" he put every single type of movement he had drilled and drilled for 10 months into practice. 

He ran, he jumped, he punched, he kicked. As he moved across this battlefield, feeling, sensing, and hearing the effects of all the many, many quirks all around, Izuku could feel it. 

All those limits he had only a week ago, had been lifted and raised far above what they were. 

He longed to test his new strength out. To see how far he could go now. He didn't. 

When he jumped, he limited himself to what he knew. This wasn't the time to accidentally break a leg jumping and landing wrong. 

That would come later. 

For now, just keep destroying robots. 

**-45-** Venom helpfully kept track in his mind.  **-47-**

As he moved, he also began to notice one fighter in particular. Someone who moved around even faster than he did, someone who shouted loudly in an energetic and frantic female voice as she moved around. 

"73!" "76!". 

Many did actually, as if they were terrified they wouldn't get the points unless they personally kept track and shouted it out loud. 

The tall guy with the glasses was entering in his late thirties when Izuku reached 50. This… This was going well. Really well actually. 

"How long do we have left?" 

**-7 Minutes.-**

He could this. They could actually win. 

**-We're still way behind the girl with the pink lightning.-**

Right. 

Izuku kept moving and kept crushing robots. 

He reached 70 when a massive Shockwave announced to everyone that the 4th faux villain type had arrived.

Obstacle.

Many of the people around him were blown away by the Shockwave the monster's leg produced as it smashed into the ground and burst the city road apart. 

Izuku though was kept firmly attached to the ground thanks to the black liquid under his feet. 

**-Huh, now there's something else.-**

Izuku stared at the thing in complete shock. 

As the monster robot loomed over them, an old feeling burst back up into his chest. Fear. 

Izuku had not feared the other robots, because he knew on an instinctual level that they posed no fear to him. No malice, no intent of harm. 

This thing though… 

Every single one of his instincts screamed DANGER at him. 

It was the same feeling he had back when he was running through the forest, as bullets flew all around. 

This thing would kill him. If he gave it the chance to do it. 

**-Keep moving Izuku, we don't have to fight it.-**

Right, they didn't need to fight this thing. 

Izuku was about to jump backward when he saw something. Someone, a girl. Wearing a hoodie was lying on the ground, right in front of the Robots path(More like off the side of the road, but the robot was so large that didn't matter.), with a piece of rocky debris over her legs. 

The girl desperately tried to lift away the rock, which probably weighed several hundred kilos. 

**-Izuku, C'mon time to go.-**

He moved , without another word, sprinting towards the robot's path. As he ran with enormous speed, he passed the tall boy, who briefly turned to look at his face as they passed. 

Izuku reached the girl under the stone and grabbed the piece of cement, and without particular difficulty, he heaved it up and threw it over his shoulder. 

He was about to grab her hand and lift her up to carry her away when he heard a sound like a massive explosion went off right over their head. 

It was like an explosive artillery shell had just gone off, and for a brief moment, Izuku could feel a sharp pang of pain going through him. He could feel the enormous wind pressure from the explosion. 

He looked up. 

**-Wow. Now that's something.-**

Someone, who Izuku now recognized as the brown-haired girl from this morning, had jumped up, all the way to the many stories tall to robot's head, and had, if the position of her arm was to be believed, punched the robot in the face with such force, that it turned the head into scraps and sent it staggering backward in its death throes. 

Izuku stood there marveling at the sight. Then he realized the girl was plummeting to the ground. 

Shit, Shit, SHIT. 

He began running again. This time he bent down immediately. A plan formulated in his skull, but there wasn't much room for error here. 

He tensed his muscles, and he jumped towards the roof edge of a nearby building. 

The force of the jump sent him sailing above the edge, and he barely managed to grab the edge with a hand, preventing him from just sailing over it. 

The grab did slow him down, but beneath his fingers the chunk of stone he clung between his fingers broke away from the whole, leaving him to not slow down completely and instead slam into the ground of the rooftop as opposed to the landing he had planned. 

It hurt, but he slammed his hands down and forced himself to the feet. 

A glimpse up told him the girl was still falling, and where, and he prayed to God this actually worked. 

\---

Uraraka was falling. 

If she hit the ground like this, she'd splat and die, but thankfully, she had a way to slow down her fall. 

The problem was that she was terrible using her own powers on herself, she'd only manage to do it for a second or two. And while it halted her momentum, she wouldn't be able to repeat it. Not like she was now with a broken arm. 

That meant she had to do it whole she was just above the ground, not far enough up she'd crack her skull. If she fucked it up and did it before she was enough down, she'd fall down and die, if she did it one second too late, she'd hit the ground and die.

The pain in her arm and legs hurt like hell istelf. Idiot. She was a complete idiot. She should have run underneath and hit it with an uppercut, but no, she hadn't thought, and she'd jumped into the air to do it. 

And now she was going to- she hit something, something elastic, and like jumping on a trampoline, she bounced a bit back up again from whatever she hit before it went down again. 

She had no idea what this was, and while she was grateful for it breaking her fall, at the moment, the only thing she could think about was the sheer, horrible pain in her legs as they hit this substance. 

She screamed in agony as all the momentum went through them. 

"Oh God! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" 

As she hissed through her teeth at the pain, with tears in her eyes, she could feel someone approaching her through the substance going up and down as someone moved over it. 

What WAS this stuff? She finally took a look at what she was caught up into. What it was, was about a dozen of black ropes that was fastened between the roofs of two buildings. 

Ropes that were sticky… And the guys walking up the ropes had a giant white spider on the front of his jacket. 

Spiderwebs? That's what this was? 

The spider guy walked across the ropes without any problem, up to her. 

"I'm so sorry about the legs!" 

"It-it's fine" She tried to say in a calm tone, and with a smile, but as he began to lift her, her legs were detached from the ropes and she bit her teeth together so hard from the pain it felt like she was going to break them. 

"Sorry…" He said again apologetically. 

"Venom, can I… make a cocoon or something and lower her down in it?" 

Who was he talking to?

He just nodded to himself, then, as he had suggested, he began to Cocoon her up. It was… A strange feeling being strung up like she was about to be eaten by some giant spider, but the boy just attached another web from his hand to the cocoon, then began to slowly lower her to the ground. 

It still hurt of course, but this time there wasn't the massive momentum from a fall as she landed softly on the ground. 

The boy himself climbed down the walls like… Well. A spider. 

As he climbed, the announcement that the exam was over rang through the city. That was fine though. Right now, she was satisfied with the fact she was alive. And as for passing, she was certain she had passed.

She had gotten more points than anyone else. Even the spider guy. 

As he came up to her and bent down, the webs dissolved, except the parts she was lying on. 

"You okay?" 

"Yeah." She gave a smile. A genuine one this time. 

The boy froze, then quickly looked away. 

"Thanks… For earlier."

"No… problem. I had to save the girl anyway."

"NO… Not… Not that. I mean… for… For, by the entrance. You… I was about to fall and… You-You caught me." 

She stared at him. Then she gave a genuine, if pained, laugh. 

"Seems we're even then." 

"Yea-yeah. Guess so."

His head shot up as he apparently noticed something. 

"It's recovery girl! HEY! WE NEED HEALING FOR SOMEONE HERE!" 

Then he walked over to the person in question leaving her behind. 

Well, today had gone way better than she had been afraid it would go. Then she realized she hadn't asked his name. 

\---

**-Well done. You actually managed to talk to a girl. Next, we'll just have to get you to do it while looking her in the face. Or another female, I don't care who you talk to.-**

There was a strange thing to talk to Venom. His critique had a bite, and they weren't exactly gentle ribbing, but he got a distinct impression Venom genuinely wanted him to do better. 

Maybe it wasn't friendship, but it was a hell of a lot better than anything he had ever had with Katsuki. 

And that asshole had probably passed too, he had no doubt.

"Do you… Do You think we passed?" 

**"How many students does Yuei classes have?"**

"About 20 usually."

**"Then yes, we passed. We did second-best, only behind the lightning girl. Out of the 8th areas, even if they only took the two best from each, we'd still qualify."**

Recovery girl, the famous healing hero, healed up both the girl who had her legs crushed by the stone, then the aforementioned lightning girl. 

Izuku hadn't really considered how strong he'd be in the grand scheme of things but frankly, the way he and Venom had blitzed through this test kinda opened his eyes of just how strong he now was. 

On the other hand, there was the lightning girl who had also proved the opposite point. He wasn't the strongest here. Not by a longshot. 

\---

"Been a while since anyone actually broke the Gimmick robot."

"Yeah, there's always someone who stands up to up to it each year, but man, it's been a while since someone actually broke the damned thing." The man saying it chuckled. 

"Still, even ignoring the girl who did it, we got several great ones this year." 

At the top of the billboard showcasing total points, the examinees had scored was the name Uraraka Ochako, with 90 Villain points, and 60 Rescue points. It was the largest number by quite a margin. 

"The spider boy was great! So full of vigour and youthly energy as he rushed to rescue those girls! Mmmmhmm I Love it."

Second place was the name Midoriya Izuku, with 70 Villain points, and 50 Hero Points. 

"Yeah, I agree with Nemuri, the Midoriya kid has enormous potential. Hey Aizawa, what do you think?" 

"...Who cares?" The man called Aizawa replied in a tone that was a mixture of boredom, and annoyance.

"Well, if you won't have him, mayhaps-" 

"Not gonna happen Vlad." A being that looked like a mouse the size of a small child replied cheerfully. 

"All classes are random, to make certain we can never be accused of nepotism or stacking the deck in the student's favor or disfavor. We aren't making any exceptions this year either."

"Speaking of exceptions, isn't it kinda weird that Black cat didn't recommend her own daughter? I mean, even Endeavor did that for his son, despite the kind of asshole that he is."

"Nah, she didn't do it for her son 4 years ago either, and if she didn't do it for one kid, she probably wasn't gonna do it for another."

On the third place was Hardy-Ashido Mina, with 60 Villain points, and 36 Rescue points. 

"Yeah, I remember that kid. Franky, I don't think he would have made it through the recommendation trial either. He had no shot against the robots, and he didn't manage a single rescue point. Quite a bit different from his sister."

"Yeah. Speaking of Rescue points, it's been a while since rescue points won all 3 top spots."

"Yeah. Hey Nedzu, how many years it been since someone scored over 70 and wasn't even in the top 3?"

"6 Years."

"Man, that Bakugou kid did amazingly well, yet he didn't even make it into the top 3."

At the fourth spot was the name Bakugou Katsuki, with 77 Villain points and 0 hero points. Points. 

Below him at fifth place was Kirishima Eijiro, with 39 Villain points and 35 Hero Points. 

Number 6 showcased the name Shiosaki Ibara, with 36 Villain points and 32 Rescue points. 

Under 7 place stood the name Kendo Itsuka with 25 Villain points and 40 rescue points. 

At 8 was Tenya Iida with 52 Villain points and 9 rescue points. 

On the 9th place was the rather repetitive name of Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, with 49 Villain points and 10 Rescue points. 

And at the final spot of the top 10 was Tokoyami Fujikage, with 47 Villain points and 10 Rescue points. 

\---

Inko did the food, pretending everything was fine. The fish was well prepared and salted, the way she had done it a thousand times before. Nothing out of the ordinary, exactly the way she had always done it. 

They sat down to eat as they had always done. She and Izuku. 

In the background, the TV was on, as the  **Alien** was watching an old movie from the MCU from the days before all of the universe's characters went into the public domain. 

She tried mightily hard to pretend he wasn't there, and it was just her and her baby in the room. 

That was hard to do when Izuku wouldn't stop talking about him. 

"So, unlike actual quirks, my powers aren't going to grow stronger over time the more I use them. They're set at the level I'm currently at."

"So… you can't grow stronger?" 

"Well… Not in strength no. I'll… I'll have to grow stronger through mastery of what I have. I Mean… I'm. So strong I don't actually  **Need** more power."

She just nodded her head as he described how strong he was now, what he had done during the exam. 

Izuku had accepted the idea of having bonded to the alien… Frighteningly fast. Almost unnaturally so. 

She desperately wanted a third opinion on this. To gauge whether she was crazy being so worried about it. 

That wasn't gonna happen though. The only person in her life she would ever trust with this kind of information was across the seas, and it would be a while yet before she got to see him again. 

The Alien was right about that utterly and completely. She would NEVER tell other people about it. The risks to her son dwarfed anything else on the topic. The problem then, was that she wasn't sure this other road wasn't just as risky. 

The Alien had been very candid and seemingly honest about what it was, where it came from, and the good and bad aspects of the bond it had with Izuku. 

There was the power of course. Great power, even by the world of quirks. Even if Izuku hadn't been quirkless, the increase in strength was flat out monstrous. 

On the other hand, there was the bad stuff. Oh, the bad stuff. 

The Alien had made the claim that Izuku would live a long and very healthy life, probably up to late 80's early nineties. He would be in top condition for the rest of his days, free of disease, capable of healing from almost any injury if given enough time to recover.

However, there was a price. As Izuku reached his final year, he would face a massive and rapid decline as all the years of his life would all catch up to him at once. 

It wasn't the worst deal in the world, but It had terrified Inko to even consider it, and it had terrified her even more that Izuku had been so accepting of it. He had accepted it as a reasonable price for the power. 

It had made Inko wonder if she just wasn't capable of understanding her son's viewpoint, or worse, the Alien was affecting him mentally. 

The worst part about that was that if it did, she had absolutely no way of knowing. At all. There was simply no way she could find out. 

The thing though, that had absolutely clenched it for her that she could not trust this being, had been when she asked it if it cared about becoming a hero like Izuku did. 

It's response had been honest. 

"WE don't care if he wants to be a Hero or Villain, king or soldier, conqueror or upholder of the status quo. So long as he isn't planning on living a boring ass life, we will stand by him to the end."

There was a threat there. "So long as he isn't planning on living a boring ass life". What it meant, was that the support it offered would not be there if Izuku ever decided to retire. 

It was unreasonable to ask a 15-year-old to think about his retirement, especially when the hero business was infamous for it's participants staying in work for their entire life(one way or another.) but it still scared her that her baby would probably never get to retire, even if he wanted to. 

She understood what the Alien was doing of course. She knew humans far too well not to recognize the strategy. Venom was employing a "Warts and All" tactic, to seem more trustworthy than it was. 

Whether or not it was honest didn't really matter for this tactic. The point was that it was impossible to present oneself as completely clean, so one brought out bad facts willingly and unprompted to make oneself seem, if not good, at least honest, and thus someone you could trust. 

Which made it hard to try and figure out what was the truth, and what wasn't. 

Maybe Venomwas telling the truth all the way, maybe he was mostly lying, or just lying about one single detail. For example, what if he was flat out lying about the bond being permanent? Without knowing for certain one way or another, it was something Inko could never act upon. 

Then there were all the mental images he had shown her. Was any of it real?

The fact was she didn't know, and she didn't trust Venom as an unbiased source. 

And the most galling thing of all was that she couldn't do anything either way. She couldn't break the bond, she couldn't seek help from the outside, she couldn't deny Izuku becoming a hero(Which she would never have done anyway). 

She was, in every way, in a no-win scenario. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I usually don't spoil anything for you guys from the get-go, but I feel a lot of readers will be pissed reading this chapter if I don't explain it. 
> 
> Anyhow, the reason why Uraraka is so damned much stronger than canon Izuku was at this point in time, has the simple and mundane explanation that she started training at a much earlier point than Izuku did, and as such inherited one for all much earlier and has grown relatively acclimated to it. 


	9. New Friends and Foes

The admiration their host had for the warrior called All Might was something that bordered on religious devotion. In the early days, Venom had assumed that the enormous blonde man with the ridiculous upwards hair, was actually the God-king of this society. 

Why not? Their host had a private room that was in many ways a mixture between a sleeping quarter and what for all intents and purposes was a shrine dedicated to this man. 

Paper tapestries on the wall, small figurines that showcased the man in his more Iconic poses, even things such as the clock on the wall was themed after him. 

So was on a lot of Izuku's clothing as well, and his bedsheets. 

Other than the contraption of vehicle tires in one corner of the room, it all seemed like the standard, regular worship of a powered individual they had seen countless times before. 

And the society was no different, selling charms, tapestries, and clothing based on the man. 

Of course, Venom hadn't understood at first. That this society was actually so full of super-powered individuals that not having any was actually rare, regarded as a throwback to an earlier stage of evolution. 

Once they had realized that, everything fell into place. The man called All Might was simply the highest-ranking member of the warrior caste of this planet, simply called Hero. 

One day, he would die, and he would be replaced by someone else, who would become the next number one Hero. 

Adoration of the strong was simply the natural way of things for this society, and All Might was  **STRONG** even by the measure of all the many super-powered individual's Venom had seen across space. 

Still, even with that context in mind, his host's adoration was a bit insane. 

**"If this is how you react to a message from him personally, we don't wish to see your reaction to him in the flesh."**

"I will cherish this recording until I die…!" Fuck, Izuku had actual tears of joy in his eyes. 

**"...Right… Not creepy at all."**

They had gotten a late-night delivery, with a small holographic device that had a recording of All Might pop up, and inform them that yes, they did indeed make it into. Yuei. 

Hah, as if that were in any doubt! Other than the girl with the powers of gravity and lightning, none there had compared to their might and power.

**"Anyway, you wanted to continue documenting our powers right?"**

Izuku clutched the device to his chest as if it was made of pure gold, but he did answer. 

"Yesss…" He sounded like he had just gotten a present from above, not a small recording device informing him he made it into school. 

As if him fawning over that sadist Present Mic. wasn't bad enough. 

**"Are you seriously going to react like this every time we meet a pro Hero?"**

\---

After making their way out of the car(Along with a final good luck and hug from Inko), Izuku and Venom walked through the corridors of Yuei, towards the room that they had been told would be class 1-A's designated classroom. 

With only 36 total contestants passing, there would be two practical classes for this year's batch. 

Finally after a bit of searching, they found their room. 

…And Izuku stood, nervously outside, hand on the door.

**-You're not seriously gonna make this a repeat of the exam day are you? Standing outside for 5 minutes shaking all the while?-**

"No, I'm just… I'm kinda hoping I don't share class with Katsuki or the tall guy with glasses. Logically my chances are that I have to share class with at least 1 of them."

**-Actually, both of them are inside this room.-**

Damnit!

"Of course they are…" It was the worst possible combination after all. 

He steeled himself, then he opened the door… To the sight of both of them arguing. 

Katsuki was eating while having one of his feet slung across the desk, while the tall guy was standing over him and berating him while motioning with his hands. 

"Don't put your legs on the desk! Don't you think that's disrespectful towards your classmates and Yuei's grand history?" 

Katsuki Bakugou, was pretty agitated as he answered. 

"No, as a matter of fact I DON'T think so, you damn extra!" 

"Not to mention your necktie! It is your duty to wear one!" 

"Will you shut your mouth and leave me the FUCK alone already!" 

The tall boy then bent down on one knee and picked up a breadcrumb, like he was an old school detective finding a clue. 

"AND to think you would drop breadcrumbs in a place like this! You should already have had breakfast before now anyway!" 

"GO AWAY, FOUR-EYES!!!" 

**-You know, this is way more entertaining when it's against someone else.-**

"WHAT GODDAMNED MIDDLE SCHOOL ARE YOU FROM ANYWAY, YOU FUCKING EXTRA!?" 

Not realizing that Katsuki really didn't actually care about the answer, the boy answered. 

"A private schoo-Ahem. I'm from Soumei Junior Highschool. The Name's Iida Tenya."

"Soumei…! Well, aren't you elite! Seems I got a reason to end you after all!"

The boy flinched back with an exaggerated motion, and expression of pure horror. 

"A reason to END ME? What nerve! You, want to be a Hero!?" 

**-Holy shit, this guy's an even bigger loser than you Izuku!-**

"...Thanks Venom."

**-Eh, it's alright. We'll make something much better out of you soon enough.-**

Izuku's words though, made both the two of them notice him, and both turned to look at him. 

Katsuki's eyes burned with rage at the sight, but it was the tall boy who stepped up to him first. 

"Hello, I'm Iida Tenya from Soumei-" 

Izuku flinched back a bit before answering. 

"Yeah… I, I overheard. Umm… I'm Midoriya, nice to meet you Iida…" 

The boy suddenly got a grave expression on his face. 

"Midoriya, I must hand it to you…" 

He turned his head away with a dramatic flourish.

"Despite your quirk's harsh words, you divined the actual purpose of the exam, while I… I remained blind to it!" 

"I… I completely misread you! I hate to admit it, but you truly were the better man!" 

**-Wow, he lost that stick up his ass real quick.-**

Izuku couldn't do anything else than just keep his mouth shut. He hadn't realized the secondary test reason either, but it seemed a very bad idea to admit that when apparently he had won this guy's respect through it. 

In the background sat Katsuki absolutely staring daggers at Izuku, but Izuku's focus instead turned backward, as a cheerful voice rang out from behind him. 

"Ah, it's you! The spider guy!" 

Izuku turned around, and it was the lightning girl.

"I'm glad we're in the same class together."

She reached forth her hand. 

Venom, currently occupying his undershirt forced his arm upwards, to where Uraraka grabbed it. All while Izuku desperately tried to hide away his face with the other hand. 

"We didn't introduce ourselves yesterday! My Name's Urara Ochako!" 

"I-I-I'm Izuku… Mi-Midoriya!"

Holy crap he was actually shaking hands with a girl! 

As Izuku stammered out his name, and shook her hand, to the snide remarks from Venom, the sounds of the bell rang. 

"Anyway, do you think the first day is the ceremony, or is it the guidance counselor stuff today?" 

Izuku, now with both hands-free, was covering his face in embarrassment with both limbs as Uraraka talked, desperately trying to say something. 

She was talking about how she wondered what sort of teacher they would have when a voice came from the floor behind her. 

"If you're gonna look for buddies, do it elsewhere."

Izuku, Iida, and Uraraka all turned their heads to look at the source of the voice. 

The source, was yellow caterpillar with a mane of black hair and a human face. 

What? 

The caterpillar followed this up by putting a small juice box to his lips before continuing. 

"This is the department…" Slurp. "Of heroics."

Why was this guy? 

After finishing his juice box, the caterpillar jumped up, so it stood on the end of it's bottom body, before finally shedding it's skin, revealing that despite looking like he would eventually become a butterfly, the yellow "hide" was just a sleeping bag. 

The actual man inside the bag was about as far from looking like either a caterpillar or a butterfly as they came. Tall, lanky, with a coal-black mane and a scraggly scruff of unkempt beard. His face was equally unkempt, with dark rings under his eyes, telling of a lack of sleep. 

He was dressed in a bog-standard black shirt and equally black pants, with a bunch of what looked like a thick tape made out of cloth wrapped around his neck. 

He had a somewhat unusual belt with cylinders, which reminded Izuku of the one the Batman Beyond batsuit had, but that was about as much as he stood out. 

As he exited the sleeping bag, he began to walk into the room, Izuku and Uraraka backed into the room to let him enter. 

"Hmmm… It took you lot 8 seconds to pipe down. Life is short Kids, you're all lacking in common sense."

His voice could basically be summed up in one word. Unenthusiastic.

"I'm your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shouta. Pleasure meeting you."

The way he said it, he might as well have been from a dead fish, with how lifeless it was. 

So this guy was their teacher Izuku mused. He could not place the name Aizawa Shouta, and he didn't really recognize his costume either. But if he was a teacher at Yuei… That meant he had to be a pro Hero right? 

Aizawa rummaged through his sleeping bag and pulled out a uniform Izuku recognized as Yuei gym uniforms. 

"Put on these on. Immediately. Then shove off to the P.E grounds."

Then he just turned around and walked out without another word. 

Well that was… Not what he had expected. 

\---

After everyone had changed into their gym uniforms they all got themselves over to the P.E grounds, where Aizawa was waiting for them with the same bored, lifeless expression. 

Their purpose for coming here was revealed shortly. 

A quirk apprehension test. 

Uraraka was the only one to actually put the question everyone had to words. 

"What about the ceremony? And the guidance counselor meetings?" 

Aizawa was rather blunt and unsympathetic. 

"If you want to be heroes, we don't have time for frilly niceties."

"I assume you all understand this school's famous reputation freedom on campus?" 

"Well, that "Freedom" goes for us senseis too."

The man walked over to some markings on the ground, picking up a baseball, or something that had the shape of a baseball at least. 

"Softball pitch. Long Jump. 50 meter dash. Endurance Running. Grip Strength Test. Sustained sideways jumps. Upper body exercises. Seated toe touch."

"These are exercises you all know from middle school. Physical tests where you were barred from using your quirks."

"Japan still hasn't gotten around to standardizing those kinds of records or standardizing the average result. Well, that's a problem on the part of the MEXT, not us."

As he called Katsuki over to the circle end of the markings and told him to throw it as far as he could using his quirk, Izuku realized this was basically just his regular old training regiment, with some exercises removed or added. 

With a scream of "DIIIIEEEEE!!!", Katsuki sent it flying with an enormous explosion. Izuku and Venom both winced from a short burst of pain from the sound of said massive explosion. 

"Before anything else, one must know what they are capable of. This will be the basis of your "Hero Foundation"." Aizawa held up his phone showcasing that the distance Katsuki had sent flying was 705.2 Meters. 

**-Only 700 meters? What a weakling. If we used our web for a sling to throw it, we could send it over ten times that.-**

Izuku didn't know how to use a sling, but this honestly didn't sound too bad. It really was just his regular training regiment. 

The rest of the class let out sounds of excitement, the prospect of getting to use their quirks to their fullest bringing out feelings of excitement. 

Someone, somewhere said, "Looks like fun!" 

"It looks… Like fun, you say?" 

This time there were actual emotions in his words. Anger to be specific. 

"So you were planning on spending your three years here… Planning on having a good time? What happened to becoming heroes?" 

He made a motion covering his face with his hand like he was face-palming from their reaction. 

"Alright then. New rule. Whoever gets the least total points will be judged hopeless, and instantly expelled."

Izuku's heart stopped a beat, panic flooding his head… until he realized there was no way in hell he'd end up on the bottom of that list. 

Still, he shared the opinion of his shocked classmates. Holy shit, it was an incredibly cruel thing to drop on them, much less on the first day and the first exercise. 

Aizawa pulled his hand up to push up his hair and gave a sadistic smile. 

"Our "freedom" means we dispense with students as we please! Welcome to… The departments of heroics!"

Once again it was Uraraka who put the class feelings into words. 

"The kid who ranks last… Gets expelled?! This is our first day here! But even if it weren't… That's WAY too unreasonable!"

Aizawa took being questioned in stride and as he let his hair down he went back to his previous way of speaking. 

"Natural disasters... Massive accidents… Ego-Mad Villains… All kinds of calamities can happen when we least expect them. At the moment, Japan is for all intents and purposes drenched in unreasonable."

"If you were counting on a friendly chat after school at the local McDonald's, too bad. From now on, and for the next three years… All you can expect from your life at Yuei, is one hardship after another." 

"This is "Plus Ultra". I expect you to overcome these trials and rise to the top."

He gave another grin, though this time without sadism, as he motioned with his finger upwards to the sky. 

**"Well, that sounds easy enough."** Venom said suddenly and without warning, interrupting Aizawa as he was about to. Say something more. 

Izuku froze completely as everyone's eyes turned to him and Venom(who was currently on his left shoulder). Bakugou was positioned so he couldn't get a good look at Izuku, but he frowned at the deeper voice.

Aizawa looked at first at Venom, then Izuku, then back to Venom again.

"You're that spider guy Vlad wanted so much… So, you think rising to the top will be easy, do you?" 

Izuku stammered. "No-I…"

"Alright, second and third rule. Midoriya, since you think being number one will be easy, if you don't score as the overall number one, you'll also be expelled. Also, if anyone decides to hold back to let Izuku achieve that, they'll also be expelled."

Izuku almost shut down completely, and could only gape and stare at Aizawa, as he divided them up into pairs to do the exercises. 

**-Well… Shit.-**

\---

"How did you DO THAT by just OPENING YOUR MOUTH?!" 

**-Well, how were we supposed to know the guy was so unstable he picks on anyone with any confidence? And anyway, this shouldn't be too hard to do. Other than Uraraka, none here is a challenge to us."**

Izuku bit his lip. Holy shit this had turned into a nightmare quickly!

"It doesn't matter if it's only one who's better than us!!! If we don't make it to the damn top, we'll be expelled!!!" 

**-Then just beat her then. It's not too complicated. Plus Ultra or whatever that nonsense was.-**

He said that as I'd it was just the easier thing in the world. 

Beating Uraraka in ball throwing, proved impossible anyway, as using whatever the gravity part of her was, she got an infinity on the ball throw. 

Izuku could just stare in numbed shock as he realized he had already lost one contest to Uraraka. 

Finally as it was his turn, Iida put his hand on his shoulder. "Do not worry Midoriya! You'll do just fine, I have no doubts!"

"Thanks…" Nice to see someone else had confidence in him. 

As he went up to the circle, he muttered one short question out loud. 

"How do we do this?" 

**-Just a regular throw. You don't know how to use a sling and the circle is too short for us to teach you on the spot. So just throw it regularly.-**

Right. He couldn't achieve number one in this trial, but he could damn well make sure he came second place. Easy. 

As he walked, he could feel both the second skin attach spread out under his gym clothes and the sleeves of his uniform being pulled up. 

Picking up the ball, he took deep breaths to steel himself. Easy, you got this Izuku. 

He thought back to the beach, and how he'd once thrown a microwave from one side of the beach to the other. He was much stronger now. He could do this. 

He could feel his muscles tense, as he put all his muscles to use as he pulled his arm back before the throw. 

The actual throw produced a small Shockwave, though nowhere near as loud, large, or flashy as Katsuki's bigass explosion had. 

More like a sniper rifle than any bomb. 

He stared after it, off into the distance before it left even his capacity to see it any more against the blue sky. 

A sound from Aizawa's phone finally signaled it had hit the ground. 

Izuku turned anxiously to look, but he heard his classmates squee over the answer before he saw it. 

"WOW!!! Over 4 kilometers!" 

The actual distance was 4027 meters. That was good… great even! Let's see someone else top that!

Someone who wasn't impressed was Katsuki. 

Izuku instinctual recognized Katsuki's scream, even if he didn't process the words at that moment. 

Anger burned through his body, as every sinew of muscle, and every bone he had prepared for combat, as he snapped around, prepared for battle, Venom's black liquid encasing his body from the top of his head to the bottom of his toes. 

He would  **crush** Katsuki, he would-

As Katsuki was launching himself at Izuku with his explosions, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks as his hands suddenly stopped producing explosions, and a bunch of white bands wrapped around his body, preventing him from advancing any further. 

Izuku blinked at the sight of the bands, then turned to look at the source, which was Aizawa. 

"It's my special "capturing weapon", a steel wire alloy woven with carbon nanofibers. As for my quirk-"

"Oh my god!" Izuku exclaimed loudly, a light going off in his head. Under Aizawa's bands which had been wrapped around his neck, was a rather distinct set of goggles. 

"With those goggles and that weapon, you must be Eraserhead! The erasing hero, whose quirk is Erasure! You're the famous underground hero who can shut down any quirk by just looking at them! Born on November 8, in Tokyo, you are 30 years old, 183 cm tall, your blood type's B, you are famous for picking up stray cats and you had a romantic relationship with fellow hero Ms. Joke, real name-" "That's enough." Aizawa shut him down coldly. He paused for a second or two before he added. "Also the last part was wrong."

**-Thanks for the exposition dump Izuku. Anything more to add?-** Venom asked in a tone mixing sarcasm, praise, and genuine curiousness. 

Izuku almost answered him, until he realized his sensei had told him to shut up. 

"Anyway… Yeah, my quirk is Erasure. I can cancel out any quirks you guys have. Don't make me use too much though, I have dry eye."

"Anyhow…" He released Katsuki and retracted his cloth. 

"We're wasting time. Get back in line Bakugou. I won't tolerate a second outburst from you today."

It wasn't before Katsuki was forced to go back in line, Izuku realized his body was still tense as hell, fully expecting a battle with Katsuki at any moment. 

**-Don't worry. We'll settle the score ONCE AND FOR ALL eventually.-**

Yeah. They would. It felt so strange to embrace the rage openly. He clenched his fist. Back in middle school, he had pretended this rage wasn't there, he had been quiet and hoped desperately he wouldn't have to fight him. 

Hell, he'd even made sure not to arrive at his middle school to pick up his graduation papers until Katsuki had left, fully accepting the angry words he got for being late. All so he wouldn't have to actually confront Katsuki. 

Now… 

Now he felt actual disappointment that he DIDN'T get to fight and crush Katsuki. 

He was still dealing with, and trying to make sense of those feelings, when his test partner Momo created an artillery cannon and blew his 4 Kilometers out of the water, with 28 kilometers.

Izuku just stared as he realized he suddenly was third place. 

\---

Izuku felt panic, sheer, horrible sweep into his mind. 

He lost the 50 meters sprint, though thankfully not to Momo or Uraraka, but instead to Iida. The tall boy had a quirk which made it so that his legs essentially had race car engines sticking out of them. 

Not too surprisingly, he was fast. 

He took the 50 meters dash in 3.04 seconds, compared to Izuku's 4.03 seconds that he cleared with a jump. 

Uraraka made it in 5 seconds flat, making her 5th after Mina, a girl with pink skin and long pink hair who took the 50 meters in 4.12, and Katsuki who did it in 4.13.

He was doing well, but he wasn't at number 1. Shit! 

Uraraka jumped while making herself weightless. Though it lasted only for a second, her momentum, and the distance she cleared in that second, still sent her 45 meters. 

Okay. He just had to do 50 then. Time to see how far he'd go. 

Before he and Venom had finalized their bond, he had been able to make a 10-meter jump. 

He was way stronger than just 5 times what he had been… Right? 

On his side he felt, more than saw Momo preparing a jumping staff. 

Ignore her, focus more only on jumping! 

He tensed, his muscles ready, waiting only for the sound to go. 

It came, he sprung forward, only 4 meters before the sand, not as much as he had usually used when he did these kinds of jumps. He reached the end. 

He bent down his legs, and prepared them for the bound, like a catapult. 

Like the log so long ago, the ground broke beneath his feet as he jumped, but it didn't prevent him from leaping into the air. 

Izuku soared, for the first time since he bonded with Venom, he felt at true ease. He felt like he had back in the woods, running, so long ago now.

This was what he was born to do. Motion, energy, momentum. All in the simple act of moving at great speeds. He was free when he did this, free from the world, free from worries, free from everything that worried him. 

**-It's amazing isn't it?-**

"Yeah." Izuku said softly, his words taken by the wind. Venom understood it, he knew how this felt. Was this how all those who bonded with symbiote felt? 

Finally, after what felt like a small eternity for Izuku, the ground came up to meet him. This time, he didn't fall flat on his face or crash in the ground into a roll. Instead he landed on his feet, and instantly fastened himself to the ground. 

He turned around. Then repeatedly blinked. Had he really gone that far? He had cleared the sandbox a bit back. 

**-78th meters.-**

"Not… Not bad. That's almost twice as far as Uraraka."

He smiled. Then it faded and he melancholically added. "That's how far we're ever gonna go isn't it?" 

**-We might push it a few more meters with training so you become better at it, but yeah, you're not going to become stronger no.-**

"And there really isn't any way to increase our powers?" 

**-For you? No. We do become temporarily stronger for a period, in the time leading up to when we will spawn another of our kind, but that is not going to happen in your life.-**

"Right… You mentioned that when you talked with my mom."

He'd gone on about that for quite a while in fact, as Inko questioned him about the idea he might create an alien takeover since his kind reproduced asexually. 

Symbiotes built up energy over the period of multiple hosts' lifetime, which would eventually be enough to allow them to spawn another of their kind. 

All well and good, except the usual time span between each new spawn was about 4 hosts, and generally a time period of 2 centuries. 

Needless to say, he would not be alive to see it. And even if the symbiotes did achieve a large number on earth, by the time that happened, humanity would have taken to the stars. 

Or at least that was what Venom said. 

As he walked back, he heard shouts from his fellow students. 

\---

"OVER 70 METERS? Wow, that's amazing!" Mina, the cheerful pink girl, exclaimed loudly! Several of the rest of the class muttered similar opinions. 

Izuku, still neither familiar nor comfortable with contact with the opposite sex, nor used to compliments in general, blushed like a fire hydrant from the praise. 

"Indeed! It's as I said earlier, you'll do. Fine Midoriya!" 

"You… Really have that much faith in me?" 

"Of course! I was there during the exam. While it is true that Uraraka Ochako's full power dwarfs everyone else here, she is also not capable of using said power at it's maximum without injuring herself. That is not the case with you however!" 

"I… I guess so…"

He looked around for said girl and she was off to the side of the building where their next text was. 

"Anyway…. Thank you for the support."

\---

Izuku had quickly realized that while his many classmates here were capable of doing one or two of the tests really, really well, when it came down to it, the overall number one spot would be either him, Uraraka, or Momo. 

The tall, black-haired beauty did not possess the sheer brute power of him or Uraraka, but it was incredibly versatile. 

As she proved when she conjured up a cranked winch to score 1.2 Tons in the grip strength test. 

It was an incredibly high score, or so Izuku would have thought. 

If not for the fact Uraraka scored 2.3 Ton before them. 

Sweat began to trickle down his skin. 

**-Man, you worry way too fucking much. We'll beat both those no problem."**

Izuku picked up the grip as it finally became his turn. 

He took deep breaths, and desperately tried to calm himself. Only one try. If he screwed up, he was fucked. Don't think about that, just… Grip it. Grip it hard. 

**CRUNCH**

Izuku blinked at the unexpected sound, and looked down. He had, unintentionally, crushed the device in his hand as he had tried to measure his grip strength. 

A blonde boy with a streak of black whistled, at the sight. "Impressive."

He turned to Aizawa. 

"Sensei, I… I broke the device…"

Aizawa just looked at him stoically. 

"You only get one try Midoriya."

Then he walked off to the next students, leaving Izuku to gape after him in panic. 

**-That would either make us number 1 in this, or we just became last place.-**

Shit, Shit, SHIT! 

\---

The following exercises ended up going all over the place. He beat Uraraka in endurance running, lost to her in upper body strength, he and her both performed only relatively well in sustained sideways jumping(Frankly the only members of the class who did that well was a dwarf kid named Mineta, Iida and Mina in that order.) and he had beaten her in seated toe touch in, losing only to a girl named Tsuyu. 

Now he shook in terror, waiting for Aizawa to read up the results, and either doom him or praise him. 

He had no idea how he'd rank in this. Was it the best overall? Or was all sums just added up, so if you did exceedingly well in one it could elevate your score completely above your other ones? If it was that latter, he was fucked, given Uraraka had gotten an infinity. 

"Time to present the result."

"The total score is just the aggregate sum of each of your scores. Since it'd take forever to go ever each score individually I'll just disclose all of them at once."

He raised his phone, preparing to make it show a hologram of all the tests. 

The moment of truth. 

"Oh, and by the way, that whole expulsion thing was all a lie."

Silence. 

Aizawa grinned, but unlike his previous attempt at a sadistic smile, which had been completely natural, this one could best be described as the smile of a lazy man who had only ever been heard of sadistic smiles in stories. 

"It was a logical ruse to pull out your best performances."

"WHAAAAAAAT!!!?" 

Izuku was not the only one screaming that, but he and Venom were the loudest. 

The only one not shocked was the raven-haired Momo. "C'mon guys, use your brains. That was obvious from the start."

Venom disagreed. 

**-BULLSHIT!!! He WAS planning to expel someone when he gave the threat earlier, we could FEEL IT! That fickle asshole just changed his mind on the spot!-**

Izuku didn't know how true that was, but at the moment he just stood there, breathing in relief. 

Aizawa let things quiet down a bit before he continued. 

"Anyway… With that first day's over. Your curriculum sheets are in the classroom. Make sure you give them a thrice over before you go home."

Holy shit that was an abrupt end of the first day. It was only 11.36.

"Oh, and Midoriya…"

**-Ah, here it comes.-**

What? What was coming? The hell was Venom talking about?"

"A cording your sheet, your quirk is an emitter type. That's wrong. Go get it's classification changed to a mutant type quirk."

Izuku just stared. After a moment he was about to ask, why? Only for Aizawa to turn and leave before he could do so. 

**-What a fucking asshole.-**

"Why, what'd he do now?" 

Was Venom really so pissed about him leaving before he could question him?

**-Nothing.-** Venom said in an annoyed tone, then he pushed down Izuku's sleeves almost as an afterthought.  **-Anyway, let's just go home already.-**

\---

Despite the short runtime of day 1, Izuku felt drained in a way he hadn't felt since that final. Training day, though this time there was less pain involved. 

Also, this time he had another presence at his side talking. 

"I had never thought before that a teacher could encourage his students to excel through deception before now, but I must say that Aizawa sensei opened my eyes on the subject!" 

Izuku had thought Iida was scary during the exam. Venom had thought him an annoying loser. The truth though, as Izuku now saw, was simply that Iida was just an honest, diligent, and passionate guy. 

**"You have a rather positive image of that guy, more than he deserves we'd say."**

Iida did not flinch away from Venom just popping up into the conversation.

"Indeed. As he said, it was a logical ruse to pull out our best efforts today. Logically speaking, this is the best time to do it. We were not familiar with Aizawa-sensei yet, and thus this bluff seemed fully believable. It's kind of thing you can't really pull twice, so one should make sure that one time reaches it's maximum potential."

**"... We weren't really talking about his damned training methods, more the fact that he is a-"** "Hey, wait up you two!" 

All three of them turned their heads to the person who spoke, which was Uraraka Ochako, running up to them. 

"You two heading for the station?" 

"Indeed," Iida answered. "Or, I am at least, I don't know about Midoriya."

"Yeah… I am, too."

"Splendid! Then the three of us may go. Together!" Iida exclaimed. He then turned to Uraraka and held out a hand. 

"We have not been formally introduced, so far. My name is Iida Tenya."

"Uraraka Ochako!" Uraraka replied with a smile, though she didn't take his hand. 

"I don't really do handshakes I'm sorry to say… I kinda turn everything I touch with my hands weightless."

"Ah." Iida retracted his hand. "The pink bumps I assume?" 

Izuku blinked, then looked at her hands. Each of her fingers had a pink bump near the tip, something Izuku had completely missed amongst the many scars her hands had. 

"Yeah."

Something struck Izuku and he just asked it, without considering the person he asked. 

"Your gravitation quirk doesn't seem to have any relation to your strength quirk, is that right?" 

Uraraka froze, her face turning pale. 

Izuku, realizing he had just asked a question to a pretty girl, suddenly got flushed cheeks. 

"...Yeah… It's… A fused quirk from my parents."

"Like Todoroki Shouto's quirk?" Iida asked. 

"Who?" 

"The son of the number 2 Hero Endeavour, he is in our class."

"EEEHHHH! HE IS?" Uraraka and Izuku both exclaimed. 

Izuku kicked himself mentally. Now that he thought about it, it seemed obvious. Of course he was, with that name. He had been so damned afraid of getting expelled today, he'd completely failed to really analyze most of his classmates, completely opposite of his usual self. 

He'd have to do something about that tomorrow. 

"Anyway, yeah my… My parents have two different quirks, and I inherited both of them."

"WOW… That's really cool!" 

Uraraka blushed and scratched the back of her head in bashfulness from the praise. 

"It's… A pretty good quirk yeah."

"Indeed! Strong as Midoriya's quirk is, in terms of brute strength potential, it doesn't compare! You truly were lucky to inherit such a powerful quirk!"

Uraraka's smile and nervousness faded, as a more melancholic expression came to her face. 

"Yeah… Lucky…" 

**"Not that this isn't fun to watch, but mayhap we should get a move on, rather than just standing around and talking. I say we should go to the local McDonald's. We have more than enough time today, given the circumstances."**

Uraraka jumped back in shock, and just stared as Venom talked. 

Then, she had a face of realization. 

"He was the guy you were talking to back there, right? Back during the Exam?" 

**"Indeed, that was us."**

"Wow, he looks cool. Anyway… Thanks for the offer, but I don't really have that much cash on me right now so-" 

"That is not a problem! I can easily pay for all 3… 4 of us! Or do you not eat Mr…" He looked at Venom. 

**"Venom. And no, we feast upon the glory that is Adrenaline, not the flesh of pasture animals."**

"Alright, the 3 of us then. I can pay no problem."

And just like that, it was settled. They went to McDonald's. 

It wasn't before they were heading to the fast food shop that Izuku really realized what was going on. 

He was hanging out with a couple of friends. Friends. Actual real friends. 

Holy shit, he hadn't realized how much he had missed this feeling. How long had it been since the last time he hung out with someone who wasn't an adult with a family connection, or an alien from outer space? 

A literal decade. 

For a brief moment, anger at Katsuki welled up inside him, but it was quickly forgotten as Izuku embraced this feeling. 

God he had missed this. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost called this chapter Brand New Day to show that this is the real turning point in Izuku's new life, but then i realised how much i fucking hated that period of spiderman history(pretty much the only thing i loved was Anti-Venom) and i went with this more generic and non spiderman title instead.


	10. Arc 1 - Growing Pains - Round 1

Venom had memories of Izuku's previous school life, generally, a boring affair of sitting and listening to older humans talk about whatever topic had been taught that day. 

It had been exceedingly boring when they didn't understand anything beyond the names of students, or the teachers. 

Yuei's theoretical classes were even more boring than those had been, and sitting around and listening to these lectures when they could understand them, didn't make them any less boring to suffer through. 

Not helping was the fact they already had learned the actual interesting stuff of local history from the far wide web. 

Earth was an interesting enough world, with a race that, whatever else it might be, was most certainly not boring. 

Venom had most of what they needed to make certain they would thrive in this world. 

Thankfully, that would change quickly enough. 

The last class of the day was a class Izuku had been looking forward to more than any other, despite not knowing what it was about at all beyond it being a practical class. 

Venom was also looking forward to this class, to break up the monotony of boring lectures about stuff that didn't matter. 

They were also curious about the teacher. 

Said teacher entered the classroom with a shout and with gusto, proclaiming how he was entering into the room like he was a normal person. 

Tall, muscular, dressed in an impractical, long blue cape and with ridiculous yellow hair standing up from his head. 

All Might. The greatest hero Japan had ever produced, and the man commonly regarded as the greatest warrior in the world. A man who always smiled no matter what, bringing hope to all. 

Izuku nearly fainted having a fangasm over the man. 

"It's him… It's actually him…" He had his face covered by his hands hiding his starstruck face, like he was actually looking at a beautiful specimen of his kind. 

**-Well isn't that interesting. Very interesting indeed.-**

Izuku was knocked out of his fervor by Venom's tone, like he had just stumbled upon something incredibly amusing. 

"What?" 

**-We'll tell you later, after school.-**

Venom also found All Might's appearance a fascinating thing, though for very different reasons. 

For one thing, they recognized who he was from the moment he walked into the door. 

They had seen this man in the flesh before, last year, on the second day after bonding with Izuku. 

All Might, as it turned out, was the man known as Toshinori Yagi. A man Venom recalled as looking incredibly sickly, frail, thin, and weak. He did not much resemble the man before them in any way, other than the yellow hair, and the sunken-in eyes. 

At least not physically. However, you could not trick a Klyntar by just changing your look up a bit. Venom recognized him and how he felt up close immediately, a task made even easier by the other thing Venom immediately felt upon the man's entrance. 

All Might, the symbol of peace, the pride of Japan, the greatest product of humanity's warrior class, was in constant pain. Horrible, horrible pain. 

It would seem the man's quirk did not come with regeneration powers.

Unlucky him. 

The pain was centered around All Might's gut, but beyond that, Venom could not tell what the injury was exactly. 

The pain did not prevent All Might from letting out a booming laugh, as he jumped into his role as a teacher. 

_ "Foundational Hero Studies! In this class, we will be building up your hero foundation through various trials! Today! That trial will be… The Trial Of Battle!!!"  _

Throughout his speech, All Might made dramatic motions, presumably to hype up the upcoming trial, ending with him proudly presenting a large card with the word " **BATTLE"** written on it. 

The class, including both Izuku and Venom, took the news of actual combat training with rather great enthusiasm. 

Venom was torn, on hand, the idea of having the students have an actual battle on their second day was an absolutely terrible idea… On the other hand, they really didn't care if the rest of the less powerful students got hurt. Venom and Izuku would be fine. 

_ "And to go with your first battle…"  _ He clicked a button on a small remote, and the wall to the side opened up and a bunch of containers all with a number popped out.  _ "We have prepared the gear we had you send in requests for, to enhance your quirks!"  _

Everyone in the class exclaimed a shout of joy and enthusiasm at that proclamation. 

_ "Now, get changed, and we'll be all ready to go! After you're done changing, everyone head to Grounds B! The garb you bring out into the battlefield is vitally important boys and girls! They will be how all who see you recognize you from now on." _

As he walked towards the exit with great energy in each step stopped by the door to give one final bit of wisdom. 

_ "And don't forget! From now on… You are all officially Heroes!" _

Well, it wasn't the most profound thing Venom had heard from a teacher, but they would take it compared to the complete lack of energy Aizawa had. 

\---

Izuku hadn't worn Venom in the manner the symbiote had explained was the most efficient one for combat, since the day they had finalized their bond. 

Which was to say he was just wearing his underwear beneath the suit. 

"Is this really the best way to wear this…?"

**"Yesss… the less fabric we have to deal with, the better we can focus on acting as armor. The absolute best would be if you were wearing nothing at all, but-"** "I'm not doing that." 

He blushed just thinking about it. He felt incredibly exposed with just his underwear underneath his second Black/Blue skin, there was no way in hell that he'd ever be able to just go completely naked in public. 

For one thing, it was just begging for incredible awkwardness if the suit was ever dissolved and had to reform. That would be bad enough with pants only, but with nothing on? Izuku shuddered at the thought. 

At the moment, Izuku and Venom were alone on grounds B with All Might, and a female student named Toru Hagakure, who's quirk was being completely invisible. 

Izuku felt both an incredible want to go up and talk to All Might, and incredible embarrassment standing next to both his idol and a girl, while feeling incredibly exposed. 

Not helping the fact was that Izuku got a distinct impression Toru was checking him and his skin-tight suit out. Which just made him feel even more awkward and exposed. 

One huge advantage of generating your own costume, as Izuku had just discovered, was being able to change incredibly quickly. As proven by the fact he and Toru, were the first here by a longshot, both having really easy to change into costumes. 

Izuku had his black suit, while Toru's costume was composed of a set of shoes and gloves. 

It was a sign of how self-conscious he felt, that he didn't even consider the fact that a girl was standing relatively close to him while technically being almost completely naked. 

Finally, the rest of the class showed up, dressed in a wide variety of costumes, some more practical than others. 

"WOW, you look really cool Izuku!" Uraraka said in a cheerful tone as she came up to him. 

Izuku blushed so hard he felt like he was giving off heat, though his face was concealed behind his black mask. Then he blushed even harder at the sight of Uraraka herself. 

Uraraka's costume was a tight black jumpsuit with open uncovered arms, a fur cape that was fastened to buttons in her jumpsuit, gloves, and simple boots. 

It was a simple, yet perfectly functional costume, yet it also showcased something about Uraraka Izuku hadn't noticed before. 

The girl had REALLY well-built musculature. She wasn't the only girl in class with noticeable muscles, as Mina also had a pretty noticeable build. However, Mina was built more like the top 5 hero Miruko, while Uraraka was more like… Well, frankly she had muscles that weren't that far from Izuku's own current build. 

Not that it detracted much from her attractiveness, as she had pretty noticeable curves, which her outfit showed off perhaps too well. 

Still, it was a pretty jarring contrast between how Izuku had generally thought of her as a really cute girl and her actual build like an Amazon. 

That being said, he still thought she looked great. 

"Man, it must be great to just have an outfit you can just throw on and off whenever. It must be practical."

"Yea-Yeah it really is."

"My costume ended up being WAY tighter than I had planned, I really should have been more specific with my drawings."

She looked over with a longing look at Iida, who wore an incredibly detailed costume, that made him look like a car that had taken human form… that still had very loose cloth parts. 

Suddenly, Mineta, a dwarf with hair made up of purple balls inserted himself in front of Izuku with a thumb up sign, and proclaimed "Heroics is the greatest!" then walked off without another word. 

Had… Had he even talked with Mineta before now? 

Further socializing between students was cut short by All Might, who seemed incredibly eager to start this class in earnest. 

_ "Now then, that you are all finally here… It is time to see what you are made of my little embryos!!! It is time for the trial of BATTLE!!!"  _

" _ But before that, let me just say that I'm really liking everyone's styles! VERY COOL!!!"  _ He gave a thumbs-up, and Izuku felt incredible pride and joy in the black suit that was Venom _ ,  _ washing away his earlier embarrassment in newfound pride. 

**-Fucking hell man, you are way too damn easy to influence.-**

Iida suddenly held up his hand. 

"Sensei! Regarding the performance ground we'll be using, is it the mock city from the entrance exam?" 

All Might gave a chuckle as he answered  _ "Close Tenya-Kun, but no, we will not be using the city itself for this exercise. Instead-" _ He motioned with a hand to one of the massive tall buildings that littered the fake cities. " _ This will be an indoor battle trial!!!" _

_ "Villain cleanup is usually seen out in the open, but statistically, most of our job is done inside. Most acts of villainy are done indoors after all." _

In front of him and to his left stood Katsuki, hanging on to All Might's every word. Yeah, Izuku understood what All Might meant. Most acts of beating down the weak did happen indoors. He knew that from personal experience. 

_ "Imprisonment… House Arrest… The Black Market… Why, any Villains with any intelligence operates in the shadows!!!"  _

_ "For this test, you'll be separated into "Villain groups" and "Hero groups"... FOR A TWO ON TWO. TEAM BATTLE!!!" _

**-What do you think the chances are, that we'll be getting to fight that bastard Katsuki?-**

"Well, that would depend on if it's random or-" Izuku answered in a quiet voice before he was interrupted by Tsuyu. 

"What about Foundational training?" 

_ "This is Foundational training Tsuyu-Chan! Only this time there won't be any robots that it's just okay for you to destroy!"  _

All Might was about to continue, but was suddenly interrupted by the entire class starting to as questions at once. 

"So how do we determine who wins and loses?" "Is it okay if we just blow them away?" "Is there going to a threat of expulsion for anyone like there was with Aizawa-Sensei?" "If we're separated into different groups, what method would be best to do so?" "Doesn't this cape look dazzling on me?" 

All Might was not amused, though he did not react with rage.  _ "I can't make you out if ALL OF YOU speak up at ONCE!"  _

Instead of answering any of their questions directly though, All Might instead pulled out a piece of paper and began to read from it. 

_ "For this exercise, we'll have the "Villains" guard a nuclear weapon they intend on deploying! The "Heroes" job will be to stop or their nefarious scheme before it's too late!" _

**-Holy shit what a melodramatic scenario! If he wants this to be a plausible mission he should have used something more sensible, like a nerve gas bomb, or a bomb to knock out all electronics in the area. You know, sensible, realistic shit.-**

_ "If the "Heroes" captures the "Villains" or touch the nuclear device before the time runs out, they win. If the "Villains" manage to keep the device uncompromised until the clock runs out, or manage to capture the "Heroes", they win!" _

Then, upon finishing his crib sheet, All Might pulled out a lottery box faster than Izuku could blink. 

_ "Your teammate and opponents will be chosen by lottery!"  _

Iida was shocked by the very idea of randomness. 

"Truly? That is how we'll do it?" 

All Might was about to answer, but this time it was Izuku who interrupted. 

"Well, pros are often forced to make impromptu on the spot team-ups with heroes they don't really know, so this is probably a reference to that."

"I see! always looking at the future, eh Midoriya?" He quickly turned to All Might and gave an apologetic bow. "I apologize for my rude interruption Sensei!" 

\---

Izuku ended up with Iida. It was a good team in Izuku's opinion, His versatility along with Iida speed would make a good combo. Probably the only one he'd have been happier with would have been Uraraka, but frankly, he wouldn't have minded anyone in the class. 

Except for Katsuki of course. 

He felt rather sorry for Uraraka, who had the misfortune of ending up with said exploding asshole. 

All the way up until All Might pulled out the balls to determine who would fight each other as Heroes and Villains. 

For the first number, Izuku and Iida ended up as the heroes for round 1. On the opposite were Uraraka and Katsuki. 

**-YES! FUCKING YES! FUCK YEAH, LET'S GO CRUSH THAT ASSHOLE!!!-**

\---

All Might gave some more words before they started, but the only things that really mattered for him and Iida was that the Villain team got 5 minutes inside to prepare before they got to go inside and that each team got a set of earbuds that doubled as microphones to the other part of the set. 

"So, Midoriya, how should we do this?" Tenya asked him, the two of them just having been left alone as All Might headed back to the "Headquarter" to monitor them. 

"You could climb up the walls from the outside to the top, could you not?" 

He'd considered that himself. 

"That's what I would normally have done, but… Uraraka knows I can do that. And she's undoubtedly telling Katsuki about it. The thing is that I'm not experienced in climbing, much less fighting while I'm doing it. If Katsuki were to attack me while I'm outside climbing… Well, I'd be a sitting duck. Unless…"

**-NO.-** Venom said bluntly. Before Izuku could ask why the hell not, Venom continued.  **-Our cloaking is a tool that has the best capacity when no one knows about it. We aren't revealing it here for all to see. If we did, we wouldn't be able to use it to it's fullest later.-**

"Anyway… So long as Katsuki is above us, trying to climb past him is a terrible idea. Not to mention that at the top we'd still have to deal with Uraraka."

He didn't know if he could beat Uraraka. She was strong. Damned strong. Her full power was far stronger than the might he and Venom had to offer. 

"So, what you're saying is that we need to capture Katsuki, then lure Uraraka away from the top floor."

"...That's one option."

"Excellent! Then I shall act as a lure for Uraraka, while you deal with Katsuki, given how much he seems to despise you, and how aggressive and irrationally he is, you should only need to make it clear where you are, and he should come running to confront you. On my end, once I have gotten Uraraka away from the top floor, and you have dealt with Katsuki, just get outside, then climb to the top."

It was a simple, yet logical plan. 

All it would take was him being able to beat Katsuki into the ground. 

**_"Let's do it!"_ **

\---

**-Beating Katsuki is not as massive a problem as it would be to beat Shoto or the girl with the whip earlobes. Yes, his explosions will blow us away without problem, but even if we part and expose your flesh, you are still more than durable enough to tank the shock from his explosions. At least the lesser ones.-**

**-In comparison, the bastard doesn't possess particularly high durability. None of our 3 counters in this class does. Katsuki is probably the most durable of the 3, since he needs to be durable enough so the shock of his explosions don't destroy his own body.-**

**-All we need is one good blow, one solid hit on any of their body, and they go down like a turned off computer.-**

"So, what, I should just tank his explosions?" 

**"If necessary, but what we need to do is close the gap and hit him. Again, he can't tank our blows. One good hit is all it would take, if we need to tank some blows to make it happen, so be it."**

It made some sense, but Izuku still didn't like the idea of actually taking any more of Katsuki's explosions. Even if they didn't actually fully damage him, they would hurt. A lot. 

Also, he didn't have Venom's confidence in his body's ability to tank the kinds of explosions Katsuki had done at the test exams. 

_ "AND BEGIN!!!"  _ All Might's voice rang in their ears. 

Iida didn't waste any time and went into motion the moment the announcement came. 

Izuku took it easier and went more cautiously. 

Once inside, Venom had problems sensing where either Katsuki or Uraraka were, according to him, due to the thick walls. 

No matter. 

**_"HEY KATSUKI!!! WE'RE ON THE LOWEST FLOOR!!! COME FACE US IF YOU HAVE THE BALLS!!!"_ **

Izuku felt… Eager was the best way to describe it. He WANTED this fight. He felt the adrenaline already beginning to flow into his mind in preparation. It was a completely alien feeling for Izuku, who had never experienced battle rage consuming him before. 

To be fair on the young hero, human beings weren't build to feel this sort of rage, thrill, and lust before they actually became consumed by combat. 

**-He's coming.-**

And he was. 13 seconds later, Katsuki sprung forth from the corridor in front of Izuku and released a large explosion that engulfed where Izuku's upper body had been seconds before, as Izuku had already jumped back and out of the way when it hit the wall. 

"Damnit Deku, don't fucking dodge!"

As the dust cleared, the two old friends stared at each other with hatred in their eyes. Izuku's eyes hidden behind two white alien eyes that narrowed in a way that had been the last thing that countless misfortunate souls across the universe had seen before they died. Katsuki's eyes were more crazed, and on his lips, he was wearing a berserkers grin. 

Two young kids on the final step to reaching their adulthood, both empowered with the capacity for destruction, both having a wish to HURT the other. Katsuki because his entire worldview was dependent upon his self worth and sense of superiority, and Izuku because any sympathy or admiration he once had felt for his old friend had been buried in unnatural hate, resentment, and anger. 

Katsuki made the first move. 

In terms of overall advantage, Katsuki had the high ground here, in these relatively cramped corridors, his way of moving by short controlled bursts from his hands were far more at home than Izuku was, the cramped space preventing Izuku and Venom from utilizing their great speed, jumping capacity and agility to their fullest. 

All he had to do, was keep his distance, employ hit and run tactics and make certain to not come within Izuku's physical range. 

If he did that, he had a reasonably high chance of not only winning through running out the clock, but also eventually bringing Izuku to his knees through attrition. 

Katsuki, being as green as summer grass, instead charged in, planting his foot down as he prepared to blow Izuku away with a strong and powerful explosion from his right hand. 

For Izuku, it was as if the world froze to slow motion as Katsuki pulled his arm back. He had seen this many, many times before. Katsuki always started a fight with a strong right swing. Izuku had never realized just how easy that made it to read and deal with his first attack before. 

In that moment, Izuku saw, clear as crystal, two different paths to victory. 

In the first, he could step inside the swing, grab his arm, and swing him over his shoulder and down into the ground. So long as he didn't pause and just followed it up by punching Katsuki in the face, it was an easy victory. 

There was a chance of inflicting permanent brain damage on him with that tactic though. 

The other path wasn't as risky with permanent damage, but it was also very, very painful. 

He chose the second path. 

As Katsuki swung his arm forward, Izuku stepped inside and beyond the range of the planned attack. His left arm gripped around the grenade gauntlet Katsuki had on his arm, while his right hand grabbed the blonde boy by one of the two straps around his chest. 

He then slammed him left into the wall, not hard enough to instantly break his bones, but certainly with enough force to knock the wind out of him. 

He wasn't done with that though. 

Still holding Katsuki up against the wall, he planted his leg into his foe's groin. Katsuki went limp instantly. 

Izuku then slammed him to the ground, and quickly webbed up his hands, legs, and mouth, leaving him only able to breathe through his nose. 

He finished off with snapping a capture band around his arm, signifying that Katsuki was taken out of the exercise. 

As Izuku stared down Katsuki, the adrenaline fading, he felt an influx of very different emotions. 

The first thing he felt was a sense of… Anticlimax. Like he had been preparing for this moment for a long time, only for it to be easier than he had ever imagined, and far less satisfying than he had thought it'd be. 

The second was a sharp vindictive wish to bend down, close his hand around Katsuki's right arm and snap it between his fingers, as payback for what happened all those months ago. 

He quickly shut the emotion down. He had won, hadn't he? Why would he need to hurt him even more? 

"Well… That was easy."

**-Of course, it was! That fucking glass cannon jumped straight into our range, leaving himself wide open to being manhandled by our vastly superior strength! Even if you hadn't read his moves so well that we didn't even take a scratch, we would still have crushed him easily!-**

Venom paused for a moment before adding in a genuinely impressed tone. 

**-Also, that reading of his movement was great! We expected you to take at least half a hundred battles before you could read enemy movement like that!-**

Izuku blushed a bit at the praise, but nowhere as much as he had earlier that day. 

"It-It wasn't that hard. Katsuki almost  **always** starts his attacks with a strong right swing. Hell, when he stands up it is usually with the right side first."

**-Wow, what a predictable mo-LOOK OUT!-**

Izuku's right arm, seemingly moving on it's own, snapped up into a guard position, barely fast enough to block the kick that was aimed for his head. 

The blow still sent him flying down the corridor. 

As he got back on his feet after crashing and rolling along the ground, he could feel the adrenaline coming back into his veins. 

"Sensei, can we "Rescue" our partners if they have been captured?"

_ "I'm afraid, not Ochako-Chan! You and Midoriya will have to finish this exercise on your own!"  _

It took a split second before Izuku realized that that meant Iida had also been captured. 

Down the corridor, where Izuku had just stood, was Uraraka Ochako looking far more serious and determined than Izuku had ever seen her. 

"All right then…" She turned and stared him down, with fire in her eyes. 

Then, with an incredible burst of speed, she launched herself down the corridor towards him. 

Izuku responded by jumping up over her and landing on the ceiling. 

He had hoped that would at least give him some reprieve, but Uraraka forced herself to a stop right behind where he had just stood, and snapped around to face him. 

Izuku avoided her follow-up jump kick by simply letting go of the roof and dropping down to the floor. 

The sound of the stone shattering above him was explosive, and he was hit by several smaller rocks that flew like shrapnel. 

He hit the ground just as Uraraka turned around in midair. 

Not quickly enough, however. 

His webbing hit her straight in the gut, and he pulled her straight down into the ground, face first. Not gently either. 

For a moment he saw the perfect opening to stomp down on her back. Not facing Bakugou however, he hesitated at the violence of it. 

That was a mistake, as her hand snapped up, and grabbed around his ankle. Uraraka pulled him down as she attempted to grab him into a hold. 

Izuku expected to feel a crushing weight as her arms closed around him, but was instead surprised by how "Light" the grip around him felt. 

It should be WAY stronger than this given how hard she hit. 

Izuku headbutted her in the face hard, the pain distraction allowing him to easily break free from her grip and jump back and away from Uraraka as he landed on his feet. 

As Uraraka stood up and put up a fighting stance, and Izuku did the same, Izuku desperately tried to piece together how Uraraka's strength quirk operated. She hit incredibly hard, but frankly, her grip Strength had been far less than it should have been given how she sent him flying with a blocked blow. 

OK, what did he know? Uraraka tended to move and attack in a burst of enormous strength and speed, so maybe… 

Izuku suddenly moved his hands from his own makeshift combat stance, so they were fists pointed at Uraraka. 

Shots of black webbing caught the surprised Uraraka(Who seemed to have expected Izuku to launch himself at her) in the midsection and quickly engulfed her.

For about 4 seconds, as with the crackling of pink lightning, the web was burst asunder as she broke free. 

Izuku didn't try a second round of web, having both established Uraraka could break them, and also having confirmed his theory on her powers. 

Uraraka's base strength wasn't anywhere near his own. The way her full powers worked was that she would unleash them in short but immensely powerful bursts of force. 

Now the big question was… How did that help Izuku out here? He couldn't see any obvious way to use that to win this fight. 

Unless… 

Izuku launched himself against Uraraka, who brought up her right hand in a hook. 

Izuku didn't meet it though and instead leaped over her and her fist. 

Once again a web shot out, and this time hit Uraraka straight in the back. Izuku landed on the wall, then he used all his strength and PULLED! For a second he felt the resistance, before with a snap the cape his web had connected to snapped loose, both buttons ripped out of their sockets. 

Izuku dropped the web and the cape attached to it, as Uraraka stumbled forward. Then as she whirled around, another web line hit her, this time in the gut. 

For a second time, a massive pull came from Izuku's end, and Uraraka went flying off of her feet towards the wall. 

Izuku's fist came up to meet her, as she brought up her own fist in a counterattack, and the two of them hit each other with blows so hard the sound echoed through the corridor. 

Uraraka's counter had been in the form of a hook that had taken Izuku in his left ribs, while Izuku's punch had hit Uraraka straight in the face. 

Uraraka, not held up by Izuku's strength anymore, fell to the ground, dizzy and wobbly as she got back to her feet again. 

Izuku for his part, was doubled over in pain on the wall, feeling like Uraraka had broken every bone in his ribcage. 

Uraraka got back on her feet, though clearly shaken by the blow to the head, she looked up at Izuku with shaking eyes, but instead of repeating the previous jump kick, large pink bolts of lightning engulfed her as she simply punched the wall with such force that it broke. 

Izuku, realizing what was happening, kicked off and jumped. He tried to land on his feet, but stumbled and rolled to the ground where Katsuki lay. 

He had completely forgotten about him during the battle. 

As he forced himself to his feet, he took several steps backwards, as he considered his strategy. 

Uraraka was beginning to recover from the head blow, she'd be back on the offensive soon. Should he repeat the strategy of jumping over her and hitting her in the back? No, no that would be way too obvious. He had a shot before and though he had taken her by surprise, it hadn't been decisive like he had hoped it would be. 

Maybe, he could run away, then set up an ambush and- Only then did Izuku realized he didn't actually need to beat Uraraka to win. 

He bolted to the left, and then, his ribs screaming all the way, he put his hands and one shoulder against the wall, and PUSHED!

The wall of concrete and steel broke outwards, and Izuku fell out with the pieces of the now broke wall. Not for long though. 

A line of black web shot up and to the side of the building, leading to Izuku slamming into the wall, leading to a muffled scream from the pain in his ribs. 

He did not stop to catch his breath, however, and instead began climbing as fast as he could, in spite of the horrible pain in his ribs with each meter. 

He had to reach the top before Uraraka got back to the stairs. 

\---

_ "THE HERO TEAM, WINNNNNNS!!!"  _

The horrible sound from the microphone was loud, clear, and painful. 

Uraraka was just getting up the stairs when Venom and Izuku got to the "Nuclear Bomb". 

_ "Midoriya-Kun, could you dissolve the web around Bakugou?"  _

Izuku, still holding his fractured ribs, let out a pained "Venom, can you…?".

**-Sure!-**

The bonds around Katsuki dissolved turned to nothing, a supposedly impossible thing according to all the laws of physics humanity knew about. 

The last thing Venom felt from Katsuki, was the boy having what seemed to be a panic attack. Served the brat right! 

Well, it hadn't quite been what Venom had hoped this would be. The Uraraka battle was great, and the rush had been so, sooo sweet! At least until Izuku had realized he could win by just going up and had ended the whole bout in a lame as fuck way. 

On the other end of the spectrum had been the battle Katsuki. That had been incredibly disappointing. And the sad part was that it could have been great! If Izuku had just put real force into the attack, they could easily have burst Katsuki's balls, dooming him to never reproduce, and eternal ridicule by his peers. 

There were fewer ways to crush someone that was more humiliatingly than to end their family line. 

And Izuku hadn't even broken his arm as payback either! 

All in all, it had been horribly disappointing. That said… The rage was still there. 

The hatred still burned bright. This little skirmish had not given him any resolution. 

That was good. In due time, he would embrace the rage and anger at Katsuki Bakugou. 

It was inevitable. It was their Destiny.

\---

After the match was over, they had all gone back to the monitor room, where the class and All Might had been watching the match play out. 

Other than Iida, who Uraraka had subdued without hurting him, all three had one specific injury. Uraraka might have a concussion and definitely had a massive black eye, Katsuki was still in pain from Izuku's blow, and Izuku still cradled his ribs, where(As Venom had informed him) he had 3 fractured bones. 

_ "Well then, Ochako, Katsuki and Midoriya, once we have gone over the exercise, I want you three to head over to the Nurse's office." _

**"It's fine."** Venom interjected.  **"We possess regenerative powers. We'll have the ribs healed up on our own in 3 hours."**

All Might stared at the dark blue creature, then seemingly took it in stride. 

_ "Very well!!! I shall trust your experience on the matter on the matter!"  _

_ "As for the match itself, the hero team won the battle thanks to Izuku, but the V. I. P of this battle was Tenya-Kun!!! Can anyone tell me why?"  _

The entire class stared dumbfounded at Iida, who was as surprised as everyone else. 

So was Izuku for that matter. Had he really been that great after they separated? 

It was Momo, the raven-haired girl, who answered. She had an outfit so revealing that Venom had questioned if she was an exhibitionist. 

"It isn't so much that Iida did amazingly well, as much as the fact that he was the only one who didn't commit any major mistakes that could easily have been avoided."

"The worst of the lot was Bakugou, who abandoned any semblance of strategy from the start, choosing instead to run off and try and act out a grudge against Midoriya. This led him to charge into an obvious trap and to engage Midoriya in close quarters combat, a truly imbecilic idea, that was instantly punished as Midoriya crushed him with no problems whatsoever."

Izuku had expected Katsuki to rage against any criticism, but instead, the blonde boy was unusually quiet. Other than the tears in the corners of his eyes, he had an expression that could best be described as dead inside. 

"Second to worst was Uraraka, who performed admirably initially, capturing Tenya after a relatively short chase. However, after that, rather than going back to guard the bomb, the item which her entire mission revolved around, she instead ran off to try and help her comrade. Though her battle with Izuku showed that she was capable in combat, in the end, her mission objective was preventing Midoriya and Tenya from reaching the bomb, not to beat Midoriya in battle. Thus, the moment Midoriya realized this, he quickly changed strategy and won."

Uraraka winced at the words but didn't say anything in response. 

"Then there is Midoriya, who undoubtedly proved himself the best combatant of the 4, yet also made 2 massive blunders. The first one at the start, when he and Tenya made their plan for the mission. While their plan wasn't a bad one, the fact is that Midoriya could easily have just climbed up from the start and probably caught Uraraka enough by surprise to secure the device from the start. I assume that the reason he did not was due to a fear of being caught by Bakugou while climbing, but as we saw with how Bakugou acted through the battle, that was a rather minimal risk. In other words, he severely overcomplicated this mission far more than he needed to."

Izuku felt like a complete moron. Saying it out loud like that brought the reality of it all home. Iida had just trusted him, accepted that Izuku knew best, and had made a plan based on that. Momo was wrong regarding who had made the plan, but she was right in saying he had overcomplicated things. 

"His second massive blunder was when he was attacked by Uraraka. While the way he ended it was sensible and won his team the match, the fact is that he should have done that from the very moment he realized Uraraka wasn't guarding the device. Instead, he gambled his victory on a battle he did not need to actually fight. Had he been less capable in combat, it is entirely plausible that Uraraka would have defeated him, and he would have lost in a battle he did not need to fight."

**-Everyones a critic.-**

"Finally we have Tenya, who, while he proved incapable of avoiding Uraraka, at the very least stuck to the actual plan, and at one point he could easily have ambushed Bakugou, but instead, he wisely trusted his partner to handle it. As I said, he was the only one who didn't make obvious mistakes."

The room was silent before All Might gave a thumbs up. 

_ "Yes, that is pretty much it!"  _

\---

As the next couple of Heroes and Villains, teams went to get set up, and Uraraka and Katsuki both went to the Recovery Lady, Izuku got something he wasn't used to. 

Praise. 

"That was amazing!" The girl named Mina exclaimed, with a grin. 

Like Uraraka, the pink girl was dressed in a full tight black suit, with white fur trimmings along the opening in the neck, on her feet she wore white boots with fur trimmings at the top, and on her face, she wore a stylized black domino mask. 

The outfit also had an open neckline, giving a rather generous view of her cleavage, though frankly, compared to Momo's outfit it came off as flat out restrained. 

Izuku recognized it as pretty much being an exact copy of an older costume used by the top Hero Black Cat, only minus any gloves. 

Izuku, still not used to any contact between himself and the opposite sex, instantly became flustered, as Mina continued. 

"The way you dodged Uraraka's attacks, the immediately counterattacked was awesome!" 

"Yeah! Just seeing you two cut loose was awesome! It really got us  **Pumped** , you know!?" Another student jumped in, a guy in a yellow full-body costume whose most notable feature was a rather large and full set of lips. Izuku vaguely recalled his name being Sato. 

The next student who entered the conversation was a guy who had spiky red-hair, who Izuku did not recall the name of. 

"The way you beat Bakugou wasn't MA ly at all, but man, that bout with Uraraka was kickass! Hard to believe it only lasted 2 minutes."

**-Didn't this guy have black hair?-**

Izuku had no idea what Venom was referring to, and instead just focused on the boy as he introduced himself. "I'm Ejirou Kirishima by the way!" 

"I-I'm Izuku Midoriya.."

"Mina Hardy-Ashido!" The pink girl introduced herself, as she grabbed Izuku's hand and enthusiastically shook it up and down. 

"And yes, before you ask, I'm related to Black Cat. She's my mom."

After that, there were several other students who introduced themselves, Sato, Tsuyu; the girl with the long tongue,

Toru; the Invisible girl, and Kaminari; The guy with yellow hair with a black bolt going through it. 

Izuku stammered his way through the conversation(Very grateful the mask covered his face completely), where he got a lot of questions, like; How did he know Bakugou? Was he related to the old Hero Takuya Yamashiro? Doesn't this cape look real dapper on me? 

Some he avoided or just gave noncommittal answers to, like saying he and Katsuki had once been childhood friends and left it at that. 

Others he had been honest about and said he hadn't even heard of Takuya Yamashiro, a long dead hero from the very start of the Hero age, who had gone by the name of Spider-man, The emissary from Hell. 

The early age heroes had really not cared much how their names and nicknames sounded. According to his Kirishima, the abilities of this Spider-man had resembled Izuku quite a lot. 

What the entire question section(Up until All Might returned and put an end to further discussion so they could focus on the next round) ended with, was a relatively friendly introduction to the rest of the class. 

It felt surreal to Izuku. Like, the other shoe was about to drop at any second. 

Making a few friends was one thing, but this…? 

It was as if the class actually  **Liked** him! It was a feeling Izuku hadn't felt in… Actually, he had never felt like this before. No school class Izuku had ever been in had just flat out liked him. 

In his previous schools, there had been students who didn't pick in him, but never anyone who actually liked him. No friends, no one who had actually just been glad to see him on principle. 

Dear God it was a wonderful feeling. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Izuku faces Urarka and Katsuki in battle for the first time. His rematches with both will go far, far worse for everyone involved.


	11. Lies and Assumptions

"ALL MIGHT IS TOSHINORI YAGI!?"

**"Yes."** Venom groaned. **"No need to be so damn loud about it."**

"That… He… what… HOW?" 

Izuku was currently in his room, alone in the apartment. Venom had waited until they came home to drop whatever news he had been sitting on for the day. 

That news, being that All Might was actually his manager, the sickly Toshinori Yagi. A man, who frankly, looked like he was at death's door. 

Izuku tried to process it. 

"Ar-are you sure?!" It seemed so… Impossible that All Might could actually be a guy who looked like he would fall over by a stiff breeze. 

**"Of course we are sure! He also has some sort of injury in his gut that causes him horrible pain, ALL the time. Now, we could be wrong, given we didn't understand the words, but didn't Toshinori at some point suffer an injury that made him the way he is now? He looked pretty normal in those old photos you were looking at back when we first encountered him."**

Izuku, still frozen, tried to contemplate this. Yes… He had read that Toshinori had an injury that destroyed his health, but… 

Izuku pulled out his phone with shaking hands, then went through his browsing history, and soon found what he was looking for. An All Might article from a couple of weeks back. 

There it was, a picture of Toshinori Yagi, looking kinda like a starving ghoul. 

"If he really is as sickly as this… How can he do the stuff All Might does?" 

Venom snorted.  **"His quirk obviously. At the very least, it allows him to drastically bulk up in muscle. He probably changes between his regular standard form and the huge musclebound titan the world knows him as."**

That… wasn't impossible. There were quirks who worked like that. Hell, in his quest to try and restore his books he had encountered no less than 36 heroes who had a powerset of that variety. But with such amazing power? None of what he had seen came close. 

As he looked down on the photo of Toshinori Yagi talking to the press, a thought suddenly struck Izuku, and he quickly went to Toshinori's Wikipedia page. 

It wasn't large, but it did exist. More to the point, it also covered his injury with a nice before and after comparison shots. 

Toshinori before the injury was a relatively average man, perhaps with muscles a bit larger than an average salaryman, judging by his build. It was kinda hard to say for sure given his clothing. 

Two details struck him though. Details he had never really noticed before, but now that he knew what to look for, they seemed incredibly obvious. 

Toshinoris' eyes had been pretty normal, a bit sunken in due to age mayhaps. Just like All Might's had been. 

Then, after Injury, his eyes had gotten more and more sunken in, until they seemed completely surrounded by shadows. Just like All Might. 

Izuku actually remembered having visited forums about half a decade ago talking about this very topic, how All Might's eyes had begun to change. Most attributed it to his age finally catching up with him. Izuku had argued against that since he wasn't THAT old. Was he…? 

Now that he had heard Venom's information… The connection was there, obvious as the sun. 

The second thing he noticed, was the way Toshinori styled his hair. Compared to All Might's ever windswept mane, he had very messy hair. He also had two long, blonde bangs down across his face. Bangs that were about as long as All Might's iconic V hairstyle. 

He could feel a knot in his stomach. 

"It's true… He really is Toshinori Yagi."

**"Of course it is! We told you he was."**

Izuku ignored his tone and just tried to process it. 

After a while, another question popped up into his head. One he had asked himself in passing once before but not really focused on. 

Why was All Might suddenly teaching at Yuei? 

He remembered being really surprised by the news that All Might was becoming a teacher at Yuei. But he had been so happy he had gotten in he hadn't really delved into it. He had also been dealing with the reveals about Venom, which had also taken up much of his time. 

So. What did they know? 

All Might suddenly started teaching at Yuei, years after suffering a critical injury that completely changed his appearance, and put him in constant pain, all the time. 

He did not start teaching that year because of some whim. He had to have a reason behind it. 

Bu what? What could the reason possibly be? There was an answer here, one Izuku felt like he only needed one single other piece to figure out.

All Might had become a teacher. He had become a teacher this year. That meant there was someone in this year's students who he wanted to personally teach… Or keep his eye on. 

A horrible fear that All Might knew about his secret, and was keeping an eye on him specifically shot through his mind, before he crushed the idea hard. It was flat out paranoid to think anyone else knew. Only him, venom, and Mom knew. No one else. 

No, it had to be one of the other students, but who and why? 

Who did he know that All Might, might be interested in? The fact was that he didn't know anyone who fit that description, but he DID know someone who Toshinori Yagi was interested in. 

Uraraka. 

The first time he met Uraraka, had been on the beach, the same time he had first seen Toshinori Yagi. She had been jogging behind him as he drove past him. 

Why would All Might be interested in Uraraka? 

Izuku froze, as a sentence once again ran through his mind. 

Yeah… It's… A fused quirk from my parents.

It all fell into place. 

Uraraka had a quirk that was a fusion between two different quirks, that by her own admittance was a mix between her parents. 

One of which happened to be a freakishly strong power quirk. 

He put his phone to his face as he went on YouTube. He didn't really need to check the next part out. He had seen videos of All Might more than enough times to remember them perfectly. 

He quickly found an old video, showcasing a fight between All Might and a Villain with the ability to turn into incredibly hard steel. 

As All Might prepared his strike, yellow lightning burst around his arm. It didn't happen that often, but they were there when All Might really put his back into it. 

Lightning. Just before a blow. 

He remembered the punch that had almost caved in his ribs and the pink lightning that had surrounded it. 

It was so obvious. 

Uraraka Ochaco was All Might's daughter. 

He had joined Yuei as a teacher to train her, and help her reach his full potential. 

THAT was why he had chosen this year to become a teacher. 

\---

As Izuku, Iida, and Uraraka sat and ate lunch together the next day, Izuku was still trying to wrap his head around it all. 

There had been stuff during the start of the day, where they had chosen a class president, and with two votes(From him and Uraraka), Iida had become tied with Momo for the most votes, the two of them being the only one with more votes than anyone else. 

It all seemed so unimportant to Izuku, at the moment as he tried to look at Uraraka, and really take her in detail, without it looking like he was leering at her. 

It was both a simple, yet so hard thing to wrap his head around. On one hand, the fact All Might might have a family somewhere wasn't the most difficult thing to believe. 

On the other hand, it was difficult to imagine that Uraraka was actually All Might's daughter. 

Izuku felt like he was a terrible friend, but frankly, other than her quirk, it didn't seem like Uraraka had inherited Anything from All Might. 

The way her hair flowed down was different, her colors both in skin, hair, and eyes weren't anything like All Might's, and though she had muscles(Whether they be trained or due to her quirk), her build was very different than All Might's. 

He intensely looked at her eyebrows, for any sign she might have dyed it, but if so, he couldn't see a strand that wasn't completely brown. In every way, it looked like her natural hair color. 

If Uraraka really was All Might's child, then the symbol of peace had left very little of himself in her. Except… 

It all came back to the quirk, the enormous powers that did not lie. 

He had gone through several hundred videos of All Might through the years, and he was more certain than ever that her powers were the same as All Might's.

He was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts by Iida. 

"Midoriya, are you well?" 

"What?" 

He turned his head to look at Iida, who was looking at him with a concerned expression. 

"Are you feeling well? Something is very clearly bothering you." He motioned towards Izuku with one of his arms in a needlessly dramatic way. 

Uraraka, currently in the process of speedily devouring her rather large meal, also turned to look at him with concerned eyes, while chewing a fish in her mouth. 

Izuku, caught on the spot, panicked and blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. 

"Uraraka, how do you know Toshinori Yagi?"

Izuku winced. THAT was how he brought this topic up? IDIOT! 

Uraraka for her part was completely caught off guard by the question, and caught something in her throat, leading to her beginning to cough. Iida slammed his hand on her back, helping her cough up her food. 

Finally, once she was done, she just stared at Izuku in what was something between horror and shock. "What?" 

**-Smooth, man. Real smooth.-**

"I… I…" what the hell was he going to say? Hey Uraraka, is All Might your dad? 

"Your probably, don't remember, but… The entrance exam wasn't actually the first time we saw each other… Nearly a year ago, we encountered each other near a beach filled with trash and metal."

Uraraka went pale. 

"I was there to pick up a replacement door for our bathroom when on the back trip I… Well I passed you as you were out training… With Toshinori Yagi."

He winced again. 

"Sorry I haven't brought it up before, I… I just remembered it, and it's been bugging me ever since then."

If Izuku hadn't been too busy trying to read Uraraka's expression, he probably would have realized, and been shocked by just how easily he had just lied to someone to their face. 

As it was, he was instead reading Uraraka as she desperately seemed to try and spin a story. 

Before she could answer though, Iida butted in. 

"Truly? All Might's own manager? You really are well connected Uraraka!"

Uraraka blushed. 

"Well… To answer the question… I first meet Yagi-San back… When I enrolled in All Might's charity program for poor students."

It took a couple of seconds rummaging through his wast knowledge of All Might lore before the details about said charity program popped back into his skull. 

Iida however, wasn't as knowledgeable. 

"I'm sorry but… I must admit I don't know about the charity program which you speak off." 

Uraraka gave a weak, forced smile. 

"It's alright, most probably don't. Anyway, it's a program to help young students who can't really pay the bills to study in the big cities like Mustafa and Tokyo."

Yes… Izuku was starting to see it now. 

"So you need the program to be able to study in Mustafa then?" 

She scratched the back of her head in an awkward manner. 

"Yeah, my family isn't exactly… That well off."

It felt off, no  **Alien** to sit there and pick apart Uraraka's story, piece by piece. 

"In my final year of middle school, I applied for financial help to come to live here in Mustafa, since… Well, I was planning on entering Yuei, and that meant I kinda had to live in the city you know?"

Made sense. 

"Anyway, I kind off met Yagi-San the day I moved here, and… Well, after some stuff, we struck up a friendship, and he helped me train for Yuei."

It was a good, solid story that didn't have any giant obvious holes. It would also mean that Uraraka got all her current money through an All Might charity, rather than say… Directly from All Might's own bank account. 

That way, if someone looked through the girl's finances, you couldn't directly trace them to All Might personally, just his charity. 

"I must admit, I am not familiar with Toshinori Yagi beyond the name, but if he was your trainer, he must be quite an effective one! And to do so while stewarding ALL of All Might's paperwork and office! He must be a spectacular worker!"

Uraraka blushed, while Izuku realized he hadn't even thought about that. 

All Might was still doing all his heroics while training up someone who could potentially become as strong as he was! 

That he did that, on top of his injury truly was a testament to the grandness that was All Might. 

"Yeah… He's the main reason I'm as strong as I am." She smiled. 

A silence arose, as the three went back to eating for a bit, Izuku dwelling on what Uraraka told him. 

He felt… Well, he felt like a shitty friend for assuming that most of what Uraraka said was lies or half-truths. But really, was he any different? He also had his secrets with Venom. Secrets that he would take with him to his grave if he could. Secrets he would lie to his friends about. 

He was brought out of his musings by Venom, who manifested on Izuku's shoulder. 

**"Speaking of secret connections, what about you Tenya? Izuku's study of your name suggested a rather interesting history behind your family!"**

Iida stared at him, seemingly weighing his answer. 

"So, you two have delved deeply into my family history have you?" He sounded serious, but not particularly angry."

Izuku swallowed. "Well, not really delved, but I did look up the Iida family."

Uraraka looked with a bit of confusion, then, still with a bit of food stuck on her cheek, she beamed. 

"Wait, Iida, are you… Are you a rich kid?" 

She seemed to find that fascinating, judging by the way she looked at him like she had just stumbled into a beast of legend. 

Izuku was interested too, to be honest, but he had looked into the Iida family. What he was interested to hear about was his exact connection to them. 

Iida kinda got an awkward nervous expression under the gazes of curiosity, but finally, he sighed. 

"... I don't really like people knowing about it, so I try and hide it, but…" 

He paused, presumably for dramatic effect. 

"Yes, mine is a renowned hero family. And I am the second son."

Iida turned to Izuku. 

"Tell me Midoriya, am I correct in assuming you are familiar with the hero Ingenium?" 

"Of course! Ingenium, real name Iida Tensei is 183 cm tall, has dark blue hair, and born on the 22 of July! His quirk is Engine, which let's him put out powerful bursts of speed from his elbows that allows him to move at enormous speeds, he has exactly 65 sidekicks employed at his office in Tokyo!"

Izuku was about to continue, but Iida cut him off. "How very informed you are."

He then put his head backwards while pushing up his glasses against his nose bridge, while wearing a smile that beamed pride. 

"But yes, that is Ingenium. The pride of my family, and my older brother!" 

"WOW!" Uraraka beamed. 

"He is a hero who leads people with an unwavering adherence to rules and regulations, truly and exemplary and beloved hero. It was my admiration for my brother that inspired my own goal of becoming a hero!"

He smiled that prideful smile for a second. He turned to Izuku and was about to say something when out of the blue, an alarm went off. 

**-Danger!-**

What? Suddenly a loud robotic voice called out. 

-Security level 3 has been broken. All students please evacuate in an orderly fashion.-

Security level 3? Izuku remembered reading the school rules, and what it said about security levels. Security level 3 meant someone had not only infiltrated the campus, but this very building.

He could feel it. No, he could feel  **HIM** . As everyone around them began to push and shove on the way to the door, Izuku was frozen to his chair, as he just sat there in shock and just observed the  **Thing** with morbid fascination, as he felt him move through the building. 

It was potent.  **Powerful** . It was the hatred he felt towards Katsuki, if that torch had been a small sun. It was  **hatred,** unlike anything Izuku had ever experienced or felt in his life. 

It was  **Loathing** of everyone and everything, it was  **Condemnation** of him and all his peers, it was as pure and clean  **Hatred,** as the human race had ever had. 

**-Wow. Now THAT is some REAL hate. We've not seen these levels since the rebellion against Knull!-**

Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone. He was gone. Izuku's began breathing again. He hadn't even realized he'd stopped. 

Around him, the mass of humans kept pushing all around, but he didn't rise. The threat was gone. 

There was more that followed in the cafeteria. Iida calming the masses down, the proclamation that it had only been the mass media who had infiltrated the school. 

He knew better. 

**-Clever. Using those foolish, annoying, useless media people as a distraction. Mayhaps even as a cover. Unfortunately for him, WE were here.-**

"Yeah… He didn't know if Yuei staff knew that a real intruder had been inside the building or not, but if not… Well, he'd have to tell them. 

\---

The rest of the day was a blur for Izuku. Iida got elected president over Momo after him calming the school. Aizawa had listened to him and actually given a real thanks for the info. Iida and Uraraka had invited him to hang out at Macdonald's after school, but Izuku had lied and said he had something he had to do that day. 

Truth was, he just wanted some time alone. Well, as alone as he could be. 

**-Exciting isn't it?-**

"What, a Villain sneaking inside the school?" 

Izuku distinctly got the feeling he had when Venom, "Rolled his eyes" at him. 

**-Obviously, the man was a scout, a vanguard preparing the foundation for a future conflict. This is how you open a war Izuku.-**

War. It was kinda a melodramatic way of putting it… Wasn't it? 

"It's just a Villain, Venom. Heroes will deal with him. This isn't a War."

**"All conflicts are wars Izuku. It's merely a matter of scale. You will learn that lesson in due time."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, its emberrasing that this chapter took me almost two weeks given how short it is. in any case, come back next time for the start of the first invasion arc, and where we really begin to delve into my long term plans for this story.


	12. The Turning Point

The day that in hindsight would be one of the great turning points in Izuku's life started the same as any other day at Yuei. Being taught theory, math, history and all the other non-physical classes Yuei had to offer. 

As was usual, it was only after lunch that their basic hero training would begin. 

"Now, for today's basic hero training…" Aizawa began in his usual dull tone. "for this exercise, me, All Might and one other will supervise."

So, another special class then, Izuku mused. It had to be if three teachers would be there. 

Behind him, Seto asked the obvious. 

"Um, what are we doing exactly?" 

Picking up a card and holding it up for all to see, Aizawa continued in his usual deadpan tone. "Today we're preparing you for disaster relief, from fires to flood. Today is rescue training." as if to punctuate what he had just said, the golden card flashed the word RESCUE in the light of the sun. 

Seemingly assuming that Aizawa was done talking, the class immediately began to chatter. For about 10 seconds anyway, before Aizawa shut them down again with a glowing red glare. 

"I'm not done yet." He said in a tone that promised pain for anyone who didn't keep their mouths shut. 

Putting down his card, he instead picked up a small remote and with a click, the shelves with the boxes that held the rest of the class's costumes slid out of the wall. 

"It's up to each of you whether you want to wear your costumes for this exercise. As some of them are ill-equipped for this kind of activity."

"Finally, the training area is a bit remote, so we'll be going by bus. That's all, now get ready."

And with that, he nonchalantly walked out of the room, hands in his pockets. 

**-Rescue training eh? Well, it's not glorious battle, but we'll take it over more boring ass lectures.-**

For Izuku's part, he was stoked. No, more than stoked. 

He knew most of the rest of the class had been looking forward to combat training more than anything else. Not him. This was what he had become a Hero for, not for the battles or victories, but to help people. 

Memories of seeing the Video of All Might's debut time and again as a child flowed through his head. But there was also the memory of the night he met Stick-San, and how the man in red had helped him when he needed it. 

THAT was the kind of hero he wanted to be. 

\---

After everyone had gotten dressed and was on their way to the buss, Izuku walked up to Uraraka, intending to start up a conversation, when he noticed something. 

"Your-your cape…"

"Hmmm? Oh right." She absentmindedly fingered the hole in her outfit where the buttons attaching her cape had been. "I've sent in a request for a new outfit that's less… constraining, and since I'm not really gonna use this one in the future, I thought getting it repaired would be a waste of time."

Made sense. For one thing, Izuku had learned quickly over the last few days that it could feel really humiliating wearing a skintight outfit. 

Normally he was fine, but whenever some decided checking him out was just fine, he became red as a tomato, and generally had a lot of trouble concentrating. Thankfully, none had done so while he was doing something important. Not yet anyway. 

As they were reaching the buss, Iida was already there, with a whistle, and motioning. 

"LINE UP ACCORDING TO YOUR ID NUMBERS! FILL THOSE SEATS IN AN ORDERLY FASHION EVERYONE!" 

"WOW, Iida really into the whole class president thing!" 

"Yeah, he's really going full throttle."

\---

After spending two minutes lining up in according to their I'd numbers, it turned out the bus was actually completely different than regular busses with a layout that simply didn't work with the neat and orderly set up they had. 

As everyone just found a seat wherever they wanted Izuku patted Iida, who had just seen his meticulous work undone and seemed kinda depressed about it, on the back. 

Opposite of them, Tsuyu started up a conversation with Uraraka in a blunt, awkward manner that made Izuku seem subtle and great at conversations. 

"I generally say what's on my mind Ochako-Chan."

"Um… Okay? What is it?"

Tsuyu turned to look directly with a huge, yet also somewhat relaxed grin. 

"Your quirk reminds me of All Might's."

Wow. And Izuku had thought he was blunt. 

Both Izuku and Ven turned their heads towards the pair as Uraraka stuttered in shock. 

"Y-You think so? I mean…" 

Kirishima, sitting to Tsuyu's left, butted in. 

Hold up Tsuyu, All Might doesn't get hurt by his own power though. They're already way different in that. 

Inside his mind, Venom snorted. 

**-She's young, she'll grow into it yet.-**

Kirishima followed up on his blatant show of inexperience, with praise. 

"But still, that sort of simple strength enhancing quirk is really cool! You can do a lot of awesome stuff with it!"

He got a somewhat sullen expression on his face, as he lifted his arm up, and with a metallic sound, his arm seemed to turn into skin-colored metal. 

"Not like mine at all. "Hardening" is great in a fight, but it's really boring."

"I think it's pretty cool though! It's more than enough to fully go pro."

It was a bland compliment, that didn't actually address any of the things Kirishima didn't like about his quirk. 

Surprisingly, it was Venom who gave some actual advice. 

**"Real battle is about efficiency, not flashiness, or pointless shows of Sound and fury, signifying nothing. Yours is a very useful power that should allow you to fuck over most kinds of enemies with ease. Also, by virtue of possessing the mundane power of being bulletproof, it's one of the most useful power sets in this group."**

"Ummm… Yeah, that's kinda what I said. It's great for battle but not much else really. Being a pro means you have to worry about popularity too you know? You cant ONLY think about how good you are in a fight."

**"Isn't that literarily how the second-ranking Hero of this country rose to such height? By caring only about battle, and solving as many cases as he possibly can, ignoring everything else?"**

"...Touche. But that kinda illustrates my point. Endeavor has one of the flashiest quirks in Japan. Incredibly powerful, but also a surprisingly versatile."

**-Fuck, this guy's dense.-**

Well, it wasn't wrong, but frankly, Izuku agreed with Venom. Todoroki Enji had not risen to the second rank because he was charismatic or flashy. He had risen to the top 2 by being better than almost all the rest. 

That wouldn't have changed if his quirk was less flashy. 

"Speaking of Endeavor, I'd say that the guy with the best mix of flashy and strong quirk in class would be Todoroki… And maybe Bakugou."

Before either Izuku, Venom, and surprisingly enough Shoto(Who had suddenly taken an interest in their conversation) could interject, Tsuyu gave another of her blunt statements.

"Bakugou's so unhinged though, He'll never get popular."

"YOU WANNA FIGHT FROGFACE?!" Katsuki barked as he jumped up from his seat, hand on the railing as he leaned menacingly over it. Or tried to. The effect, along with his hair had him look more like a chihuahua barking over a fence. 

Izuku blinked. Had… Had Katsuki always looked so non-threatening? 

"See?" Tsuyu said, nonchalantly pointing at Katsuki without even looking at him. 

Venom was chuckling at Katsuki's outburst, but it was what happened next that got him really cackling. Namely, Kaminari Denki decided to make some sport of the easy target that was Bakugou leaning on the railing above them. 

"It's only been a brief while since our socialization was has commenced, and yet apodictically cognizant of your personality, redolent as it is of a turd, getting steamed in a sewer."

"YEAH, OK MR VOCABULARY, HOW ABOUT I FIGHT YOU INSTEAD!" 

"Enough."

Aizawa, who had been napping during the trip finally bestirred himself to shut down the argument with a glare of shining crimson. 

Everyone quieted down before Aizawa added "Also, we're here, everyone look sharp now okay…"

That last part could have sounded inspirational, but coming from Aizawa, it was as unenthusiastic as everything else he said. 

\---

The "here" He was referring to turned out to be a giant park. The whole, thing looked like an enormous theme park, or at least it would have if not for the fact one of the zones was at fire, and another two zones seemed like all the buildings in them had collapsed. 

Venom's, and to a lesser extend Izuku's eyes and attention was instantly drawn to the fire zone. As everyone was standing just looking at it and marveling, their eyes were glued to the dancing flames. 

**-We take it back. This is going to fucking suck.-**

\---

The third teacher turned out to be a woman, though the only way one could know that was if one were familiar with her already. 

She was dressed in an attire that could best be described as a mix between an astronaut spacesuit, a poncho, and a down jacket. On her head was a giant black dome with only two large white eyes showing anything of her face. 

"It's the space hero 13! She's a famous hero who does all her best work in rescue work!" 

Izuku was about to go on in his regular way of just listing up everything he knew about said Villain but was interrupted by Uraraka, who similarly squeed in delight at the prospect of meeting 13.

"Oh my gosh, it's actually 13! I can't believe it!" 

Uraraka beamed looking at the space hero, in a way that Izuku was pretty sure was how he had looked when All Might had first walked into their classroom. It was a look of pure, untainted admiration. It seemed Uraraka was a big fan. 

13 was about to introduce herself when Aizawa interjected and walked up to her. 

"Wait, where's All Might?"

In response, 13 waved him over until they were right up against each other, and she answered in a very hushed, quiet tone. 

Izuku, hypersensitive to sounds as he was, didn't have too many problems listening in on the conversation even though he wasn't trying. 

"Well?" 

"About that sempai… It seems he reached his  **limit** during his morning commute. He's currently resting in the break room."

Izuku froze. Limit? 

**-It would seem All Might is limited to how much he can operate at the moment. Well, isn't that interesting.-**

Izuku, still in shock, didn't answer. This… This little piece of information completely changed what he thought he knew about All Might at the moment. 

All Might had a freaking time limit for how much he could operate? That… That completely recontextualized why he was here teaching. Izuku had merely thought he was here to teach his own child, to make sure she reached the heights he himself did… And he was, just not in the way Izuku had first thought. 

If… If ALL Might was so injured he had a limit for how much he could operate… 

He was interrupted in his train of thoughts by 13, who had turned to the class and begun talking. Izuku actually missed her opening, so in-depth was he considering the new question, before he realized his teacher was saying something. 

"-of you are aware… My quirk is called Black hole. As you can probably guess from that name, it can suck in and tear apart anything."

**-Wow. An actual power that could be used to end all life on this planet, color us impressed.-**

13's continuation wasn't that far from Venom's assessment. 

"It is remarkably useful in disaster work, and capture. However… It is also a power that can kill  **Incredibly** easily."

She gave a look from left to right looking over all of them. It was hard to read her expression, but as she continued, her voice became more somber. 

"I'm certain there are many of you who are similar. With powers that can easily take others lives, even without intention. In our super-powered society, the use of quirks is heavily restricted and monitored. It may seem like this system of ours, is a stable one."

" **But,** we must never forget that it only takes one wrong move for someone with an uncontrollable quirk to kill someone, intent be damned."

Yeah… That wasn't wrong at all. It was an aspect of superhero work that was generally not discussed much(At least not in Japan, certain other countries had much bigger problems with it) but cases where heroes accidentally caused a death, or intentionally killed someone in self defense or protecting others happened. 

Being a hero didn't give you permission to kill, but when you there thousands upon thousands of super-powered people together, sometimes, the worst happened. 

One of the few cases his mom had done which Izuku remembered clearly from his childhood, was a case where a hero's protective shield had ricocheted bullets and killed 4 criminal gunmen. 

He had been cleared and found non-guilty, as it was clearly self-defense, but even that open and shut case had still gone to court. 

As it should. They did not live in a world where heroes should be allowed the authority to murder people. 

"During Aizawa's physical fitness test.. You were taught to learn about your hidden potential."

"During All Might's battle training… You experienced the danger that your powers pose to others."

"This class… Will teach you a new perspective! Here, you will learn how to. Utilize your powers to help people, and save lives."

Izuku smiled at her words, as this was precisely why he wanted this class. THIS, was why he wanted to be a hero. 

His bright spirit, and smile withered with her next line. 

"Your powers are neither Made, nor Meant to inflict harm on others. I hope you leave here today with the understanding that you're made to help people."

As 13 finished her speech and got some applause(From Uraraka who seemed to really love the hero, and from the always prim and proper Iida.) Izuku felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. 

It was a good speech, one that encapsulated everything Izuku himself felt about hero work… But it was also wrong in one point, at least regard to Izuku himself. 

His powers WAS both Made, and Meant to hurt people. Memories flashed through his head, memories of Venom explaining the origin of his race, and the being that had created them for conquest across the stars. 

However he used these powers Venom gave him, he was different than his classmates, who had all been born with their powers. Natural, and blameless. No blood rested on the origin of their powers. Very much unlike Venom. 

He was still trying to bury, and/or deal with his overall thoughts on the less… Savory parts of Venom's history, when 3 things happened. 

The first was that suddenly, and without warning, he could feel the presence from yesterday. The man who  **HATED.**

The second was that almost against his own will, his body forcibly snapped around to face the new threat, instinctually falling into a combat stance Izuku had never used. 

And thirdly and finally, was that there, down a set of stairs in the plaza that was between all the zones. Several dozen black and purple portals appeared as dozens of people walked through them. 

Villains was Izuku's first thought. 

Panic was the second. The same feelings that had taken over him in the forest, less than a week ago, yet now seemed like it had happened a lifetime ago. Fear, panic, and doubt shot through Izuku's mind. But there was also a surge of adrenaline, a readiness for battle like he had felt before he and Katsuki had come to blows. 

The men and women who stepped out through the portals were a ragtag bunch, but almost all looked pretty threatening, some with gun, or knife, or other weapons-related quirks, some mutations, whether animal or more random ones. 

Two stood out amongst the group though. 

A huge man dressed only in a set of ripped pants, with blackish, purple skin, crisscrossed with red veins. His muscles were such they rivaled All Might himself, in how ripped he looked, but the most notable features he had was his head, with a huge, metal-encased beak full of jagged teeth, and on his head, in one of the most grotesque things Izuku had ever seen in his life, was his brain, exposed with no skull or skin, pumping and pulsing. 

The one who stole Izuku's attention, however, was the man. The one who hated. His eyes locked out to him, and Izuku froze. 

**-That's the guy? THAT'S the source of this hatred?-**

He looked absolutely ridiculous. 

Tall, with matted white hair, the guy was dressed in a black shirt and pants that looked like they were someone's pajamas. But the ridiculousness didn't stop there. 

Around his arms, neck, shoulders, and head, he wore detached hands that were holding on to him. It could have looked somewhat creepy, but several of them have silly, red cables connecting them, and one of them was over the front of his head, covering his face and looking absolutely ridiculous. 

Finally, as if encapsulating the narmy look, he wore basic standard, worn red sneakers, and was hunched over as he walked. 

The look basically could all be summed up in one word. 

**-Fucking HELL he looks stupid!-**

… A bit more crass than Izuku would have put it, but yeah, he looked really, really stupid. 

Right now though, there was something more pressing about the man in question. 

"Aizawa Sensei! That's the guy from the alarm incident! The guy in the pajamas!" 

Several students, who hadn't quite resales what was going on, or even realized something was wrong, all turned to look at who Izuku was yelling about. 

Aizawa though wasn't forthcoming with an explanation. 

"13, PROTECT THE STUDENTS!" He yelled in a panicked, hoarse voice like he wasn't used to actually speaking loudly. 

"The heck are those?" Kirishima asked, looking down on the invading group. "More robots?" 

"DON'T MOVE, THOSE ARE VILLAINS!" 

**"Yeah, that's pretty fucking obvious man. They're here to kill us most likely. Or try to anyway"** Immediately after finishing, he fused his head around Izuku's. 

His voice was nonchalant as if being attacked by a sudden dozen Villains who wanted to murder them was just a regular occurrence to be taken in stride. 

Those words didn't exactly bring calmness to the rest of the class, but before any true panicked reactions could be had, the source of the misty black portals made itself known, as a head made of the stuff suddenly materialized itself in the air, overlooking them, it's eyes like yellow, burning slits with yellow energy trailing behind them. 

"13 and eraser head is it?" As his eyes narrowed, Izuku felt his eyes scanning him, and the rest of the class. 

"According to the staff schedule I got the other day, All Might was supposed to be here… Yet he is not."

The pajamas guy didn't take the news well. 

"Where is he…? We came all this way… brought so many playmates…. All Might… The symbol of peace… Isn't here?" 

The guy's head shot back up, and his entire spine went up, and rigid, like he was a pole. 

"I wonder if some dead kids will bring him here?" 

It was… Interesting to be able to feel him as he changed his mind. 

Seconds before there was nothing more than hatred, a burning loathing of everything around him. 

Then like a switch, his emotions turned to something else. A feeling Izuku hadn't felt before, yet instinctually, he somehow knew what it was. Killer Intent. But not focused, on anyone, or anything. Just kinda… There. 

Izuku should have felt horrified by his words… Yet he didn't. At all. There was no conviction in them. Despite all this guy's hatred, he just didn't feel anything one would have expected from a guy who just proclaimed he wanted to murder kids. Murder him, Izuku realized. 

He should have felt threatened the same way he felt from the rest of these guys. But he just wasn't. At all. 

He was like a child throwing a tantrum. 

By his side, Kaminari stepped up and looked down upon, the congregation of Villains. Unlike Izuku, he was obviously shaken by Shigaraki's words. He shook in fear, and his eyes scanned the Villains as if looking for someone or something. Most likely he was trying to figure out exactly how many there were. 

He was afraid. Scared. Terrified. 

Izuku put his hand on his shoulder. He tried to think up something positive to say to calm him, but before he could, Kaminari, seemingly snapped out of his fear by Izuku's hand, suddenly stopped shaking. 

His look changed from fear to resigned. 

"We'll just have to fight then…" The blonde boy grit his teeth and clenched his hands into fists, as he looked down on the Villains, who now seemed to be considering their next move. 

"Ain't happening." Aizawa said in a tone that would broker no argument. 

"13! Get the students out, and try calling the school! One of these Villains must be jamming the sensors, it's a large chance that one of them is an electric type causing a disturbance preventing the signal!" 

"Kaminari! When you get outside, try using your quirk to signal for help!" 

"Uh, Right, GOT IT!" Kaminari responded. 

Aizawa then stepped up to the edge of the stairways, obviously preparing to fight. Fear for what might happen to Aizawa suddenly shot through Izuku's mind. 

"Wait, sensei, you can't fight all of them alone! Against that many, not even you can nullify, ALL of their quirks. Not to mention your battle style is Erasure and capture, head-on battle isn't your-" 

Aizawa cut him off. 

"No good hero is a one-trick pony."

Then, before he attacked he gave one final line. "13, take care of the students."

Then, with a short burst of running, he jumped down the stairs towards the plaza. 

\---

Aizawa did remarkably well in his assault. Frankly, though, a better strategy would have been to have the students with ranged capability back him up. 

But as it was, he had decided to make this a one-man show. Oh well. They would need to fight anyhow. The presence of a teleporter made sure of that. 

Still, they had bested teleporter before, even before the final bonding. They would do it again. Maybe break his neck too this time, instead of just knocking this one out. 

\---

As the students began their attempt at evacuation, Izuku had to fight an urge, no, a NEED to jump down and back up Aizawa. 

He should FIGHT! He should help Aizawa. Leaving him alone down there, felt so, utterly wrong. 

Those thoughts were interrupted by the teleporter, who suddenly materialized like a huge black sheet of black mist in front of the entrance. 

"I'm sorry to say, but I cannot allow you to leave." The darkness said in a polite voice. 

"Allow me to introduce ourselves. We are the league of Villains. Forgive our audacity, but… Today, we came here to Yuei, highschool of heroism… To end the life of All Might, the Symbol of peace…"

Izuku froze. This guy… Unlike the hands guy, this guy was the real deal. An actual killer in mind and soul. Izuku could feel it from him. Conviction, steadfastness, a total disregard for them, and their lives. This guy would kill them if he could. 

He would kill All Might. 

Not happening. 

"We were under the impress-" He was cut off as two figures launched themselves forward, and punched him in the face and gut… Or at least where his face and gut had been. 

Izuku's fist hit him straight where his head had been, but it simply went through his mist, as the man dematerialized into mist and reappeared a bit in front of them, outside their immediate reach. 

Izuku didn't turn to look at the other person, but a flash of pink in the corner of his vision told him it was Ashido Mina. 

"That  **was** close." The mist guy said as if he hadn't almost had his lights knocked out. 

He narrowed his eyes. "Yes… Students though you may be, you are indeed the best caliber."

**_"BEGONE."_ **

Without warning, and so fast that Izuku didn't even have time to react, black mist surged forward, and around them. 

Izuku could feel a hand close around his arm, and rip him backward and off his feet, away from the mist at incredible speed, but it wasn't enough. 

The mist engulfed, him and the owner of the hand completely in a maelstrom of black mist, even as they moved backward. 

\---

For what seemed like far, far longer than it probably was, Izuku floated through a void, the only thing he could feel for sure was the arm, that still firmly held unto his arm. 

Suddenly, and without warning, light returned, and they were back in the world of the living. 

Izuku immediately notice two things. The first was that he was falling. The second, that he was maybe 6 meters above ground, or rather a rooftop. And the third, was that below, there were 5 people, all of whom had what, with a shock, he realized was machine guns. 

They were waiting for them to hit the ground to riddle them with bullets. 

The shock almost overwhelmed him, but instincts, his innate will to survive, took over. 

The arm that wasn't clamped down on, shot up and a line of black web hit the ground by the feet of one of the guys. 

Then, with a PULL, Izuku changed their direction and instead of landing in the middle of the five, Izuku instead slammed into the unfortunate Villain. 

The hand let go as they hit the guy, and Izuku heard someone kick off from the ground beside him. 

**-KEEP MOVING, DON'T STOP!-**

He did so, and rather than turning around, he jumped sideways. 

Seconds later, a small hail of bullets flew into the spot where his body had just been, and over the unfortunate guy, Izuku had slammed into. 

The sound from the explosion of each bullet was a ping of pain in Izuku's head, but he ignored it. 

As he flew, Izuku turned midair to get a look at his assailants. The sight that greeted him was Mina ashido having moved so that she was between three of the gunmen and a final fourth one, who she was in the process of attacking having apparently ripped his machine gun out of his hand and tossed it over the edge of the building. 

One gunman had trained his weapon at Mina and the guy she was tangling with, but he hesitated at the prospect of shooting and possibly hitting his buddy. 

The other two were attempting to reload, having used both their clips trying to kill him. 

Izuku didn't need to consider who to attack first. A black webline slammed into the gun of the hesitating gunman, and with enormous strength, it was wrenched out of his hands and went sky-high. The man screamed in pain, probably having broken his index finger. 

Izuku ignored it, and instead, two new black lines slammed into the ground where the two men who were reloading were standing. 

Izuku hit the ground right in front of them, and his hands shot up and closed around the guns, and with two " _ crunch _ " he broke both of them in his grips. 

Izuku had made one mistake, however. He assumed the guy he had just disarmed was without a method of attack. 

A giant fist of water slammed into Izuku from the side, sending him flying through the air and over the edge of the building. 

His hand wrenched up, and a line attached itself to the side of the building, and instead of just falling, he slammed into the side of the structure. 

He did not stop to catch his breath though, instead, he forced himself to climb back up, ignoring any pain of just having been hit by the water. 

He vaulted over the edge. 

What greeted him was the sight of the water fist guy lying on the ground and clutching his side, where Mina had just punched him, having already dealt with the guy she had been tangling with. The two other villains were running to help him, but stopped and turned towards him, as he came up over the side. 

For a moment, it was a moment of calm as they just stood there staring at each other. 

Then, with a glance at the other, both nodded, and they split up, one went towards Izuku, while the other went towards Mina. 

The man who went towards Izuku changed, his suit, which Izuku only now realized was an army uniform with bulletproof armor, was shredded as he transformed, becoming larger and bigger, his muscles bulging, becoming a mountain of a man. 

With a roar, he jumped forward, and lifting his hands over his head, he slammed them down on Izuku, who, panicked, brought his arms up to block. 

The force… wasn't all that impressive actually. Izuku blinked, as the man recoiled, seemingly in pain, then after planting his feet brought his hand forward in a massive punch. 

Izuku stopped it dead in it's tracks with an open palm, simply catching it midair

He then grabbed the arm, and threw him over his shoulder straight down into the rooftop, cracking the stone. The large man grunted in pain but was quickly silenced, as Izuku brought his hand down and punched him in the face, the man going out with a single blow. 

For a few seconds, he just stared at the guy who went down so easily. 

Then, the sound of battle shook him back to reality, and he snapped around towards Mina… Who also was finishing up her fight, the other guy lying on the ground having taken a power blow to the head. 

"You okay Midori?" She asked in a worried tone as she jogged up to him. 

Midori?

"Yea-yeah I'm fine… You?" 

She grinned. "No injuries here. I was worried about you though when you flew over the edge."

She smiled at him. "You know to handle yourself in a fight, you been in many?" 

"Not… Really?" 

"Huh. Well, you did great anyway."

Apparently catching something on the ground, she bent down and picked something up. One of the Villains guns. 

"Uzi's." She exclaimed. "That's… Not really a good sign."

He would take her word for it. He didn't really know gun types enough to call it something other than a machine gun. 

"So… What do we do now? We can't just leave these guys loose, then move on." 

Izuku blinked. Then he realized that he wasn't done here, and hastily begun to go and web up every single one of the Villains. 

As he walked from Villain to Villain, Mina kept talking. 

"Who are these guys anyway? They can't seriously think they could beat All Might could they?" 

Izuku went cold. Time limit. All Might had a time limit. 

"You… You remember that commotion with the news reporters yesterday?" 

"Yeah? Oh right, you said something about that earlier."

"Yeah… Those guys used that commotion as a distraction to break into Yuei… Probably to look at the schedules. They knew All Might would be here."

They knew about his time limit and planned to attack him while he was vulnerable. 

"I… I don't know about the hands guy… But… The teleporting guy, of black mists? He didn't strike me as the kind of guy who would have gone through with this plan if he didn't think it could succeed. These guys probably think they could theoretically kill All Might."

"But… He isn't even here."

"Yeah…" He went even colder. "But killing All Might isn't all they're after here. They… They separated us. They had this whole thing planned out, and divided us up so we would be easier to deal with."

"They want to kill us. That's the second part of the plan." As she talked, Mina had lost all her cheerfulness, the normally preppy girl suddenly having turned really melancholic. 

  
  


She wasn't wrong though. 

"Yes."

A silence followed as Izuku finished up webbing the gunmen. He bent down over the final Villain, the water fist guy, and with a shock, and a wave of disgust at himself, he realized he hadn't just broken his index finger, he had ripped it clean off when he yanked the gun out of his hand. 

He had broken the leg of the guy he had landed on, but somehow seeing the blood flowing from where the finger had been, made it really sink in for Izuku. 

These guys wanted to kill them. This was a life and death battle. 

And all their classmates were in similar bouts. 

"We have to go save our classmates. All of them are in similar boats to us."

A horrible thought went through his mind, and his hand went down and grasped the water guy by the bulletproof jacket. His webbing formed a seal around his hands as well and closed up the wound. 

He then hoisted the webbed up man up, holding him upwards. 

"Do all of y **ou have guns?"** he said in a dark tone, Venom's darker version of his own voice bleeding into it. 

The man looked down on him, anger, and hatred in his eyes. Izuku grit his teeth in a snarl.

Fear went into the man's eyes. "I don't understand you!" He said in English. 

What? Oh, right. His gaze turned to the group. Now that he got a look at them, none of them seemed to be Japanese. Probably American, or European. 

**"Do all of you have guns?"** he asked again, this time in English. 

The man hesitated for a moment, then, looking into Izuku's white eyes, he answered. 

"Our entire group does. The japs don't."

"The Japs?" Mina said in a very angry tone like he had just horribly insulted her personally. 

The guy, seemingly thinking she was asking for clarification answered. 

"We were hired to do this job. All for One gave the Big Man, 30 million if we helped him out with this project. Our group is here, while the rest of the people here are Japs from his own group."

Izuku and Mina just stared at him. 

"All for One? Seriously? THAT All for One?" 

"Yeah, that guy."

All for One. All for One himself. The most notorious Japanese Villain in history was the brain behind this operation. 

That seemed…. Well, It made things far more complicated. 

"... If All for One was behind this, WHY isn't he here?" 

"How should I know? I'm not a fucking officer. I just do as I'm told."

Izuku was about to continue when Venom suddenly shot a warning through his head. 

-BEHIND YOU!- 

Izuku, still holding the water guy snapped around, as out of the air, on the opposite edge of the roof, a new figure materialized out of thin air in a flash of purple light. 

A very familiar figure. 

The newcomer was a woman in dressed in the same military uniform as the rest, bulletproof west as well, the only difference being it was a navy blue color instead of bry and green. In her hand, she held a regular gun, though it wasn't pointed upwards at any of them. 

She had long black hair, and though she had natural light skin, she obviously had a tan that had darkened. 

Izuku recognized her immediately. The teleporting lady from the forest. 

For a second, they just stared at each other. Then she groaned in an exasperated manner. 

"Seriously, Morris? You guys couldn't handle a couple of kids literarily just out of middle school?" 

Water guy, now identified as Morris, stiffened, then replied. "Sorry Tel." 

"Fucking Yankees…"

She shook her head. Then she turned her face to Mina. 

"Ah… Black Cat's brat eh? That explains a lot."

Then her eyes went to Izuku. 

"And you are…?" 

He stared at her, dumbfounded for a moment. 

"Why… Why, would I tell you that?" 

"Well, it's called proper manners kid. Or maybe your mom never taught it to you. Anyway, i-" 

She stopped dead in her tracks. 

"That liquid…"

Oh shit. 

Her face went from annoyed, to pissed in a second. 

"It's  **you** ! You're that  **asshole** who broke both my  **finger** and my  **jaw!!!"**

****

****

"He did?" Mina asked incredulously. "Why? Who are you anyway?" 

"I'll explain later," Izuku said quickly. Now was NOT the time to go into what had happened in the forest. 

Now they had to deal with this lady. 

He dropped Morris to the ground and assumed a combat stance. To his left Mina did the same. 

"Tel" Did not move to attack them. Not that she needed to, being a teleporter and all. Doubtlessly, she would be relying on that for this fight. 

Then, she disappeared into a flash of purple light. 

Izuku tensed, assuming she would reappear somewhere nearby and attack, but she didn't. 

**-She left-** Venom confirmed.  **\- She's not around here anymore.-**

"Did… Did she run away?" Mina asked in a baffled tone. 

The answer, appeared in front of them, roughly 20 seconds after she left, as she reappeared once more. 

But not alone. 

Along with her, she had brought two guys.

One of them was dressed in a ridiculous yellow outfit, with a cross pattern over it. There was some red parts, as well as some steel sections on his outfit. Two gauntlets around his hands, in particular, standing out. Over his eyes, he had a large green visor. 

All in all, he looked like a giant, yellow quilt. 

Izuku had no idea who he was. 

The other guy though. 

"Oh shit…" Mina swore. 

"Izuku, that's…" "I know, he replied in a tone far more squeaky than he'd have liked. 

The man was  **Enormous.** Grey, thick hide like plates covered him from head to toe in place of skin. On his head, two horns, one in front of the other, with the front one being much, much larger. 

The only piece of cloth or equipment he wore, was a ripped and tatted set of baggy jeans around his groin and upper legs.

He could have looked comical… To anyone who didn't know who he was anyway. 

"Thanks for helping me out here Rhino. You're really doing me a solid, here." Tel said in a cheerful tone while shooting daggers at Izuku. 

"No problem Tel, I'm ALWAYS happy to help out my fellow Liberators." The monster replied cheerfully. 

The man was Alexander O'Hirn. Better known as the Rhino. An American, man with a death count in the tens of thousands. He was one of the most notorious criminals alive. A monster who had crushed countless heroes into the ground over the course of a criminal career spanning only a single year. 

Tel grinned. "Have fun you two." She gave a wave to Izuku and Mina before she teleported out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus, we reach the turning point. where izuku's life goes from a regular hero career, into something much more complicated.


	13. Power

As Tel teleported out and left Izuku, Mina, and Venom alone with Rhino and the yellow guy, a silence arose, as the two sides just stared at each other. 

Izuku and Mina were both incredibly tense, and on guard, both of them staring with complete scrutiny at the other duo, awaiting some attack or charge. 

On the opposite end, maybe 7-9 meters away on the other side of the roof, Rhino and His buddy seemed far calmer, collected, and at ease. 

It was Venom who broke the silence. 

**"So, who is this exactly?"**

On instinct, Izuku almost went into a tangent laying out all he knew of Rhino and his history. 

For once though, he bit the answer down. This wasn't the time to stand around like a moron and give a long-winded tangent. 

Rhino apparently felt differently. 

"Oh, of course, how rude of me! We haven't introduced ourselves yet. Allow me, to rectify this error."

He lifted his hand up nonchalantly like he was an enthusiastic teacher motioning as he explained some problem or something before his class. 

"I'm The Rhino. And don't forget the "The" part of it. There are plenty of rhino themed guys in the world. But there's only one of me."

Well… That was true enough. 

The Rhino grinned, then he struck a bodybuilder pose as he continued. 

"My quirk is RHINO! Letting me do anything a rhino can do! Like tank sniper shots to the head! Or shatter a street beneath my blows! Or survive explosions! Or-" "They get the point." His companion interrupted his rather inaccurate, and inane comparisons. 

"Right! And THIS is my good buddy shocker! He is a cripple! A genetic throwback to an earlier age, where humanity as a whole was weak and puny! A quirkless man with no abilities beyond that of the old human race!" 

Izuku, for the first time in The Rhino's ramblings, was genuinely thrown off guard. The shock of learning this guy was quirkless, almost overshadowed the very personal sting of the comically ableist way Rhino described quirk less people. 

If shocker took any offense to being described like this, he didn't show it. Instead, he kept his eyes on firmly on Izuku and Mina, obviously expecting an attack of some kind. 

"Wait, he's quirkless?" Mina interrupted in a surprised tone. "Then… What's with the costume?" 

"Ah, yes! Good question pink girl. Unlike the rest of his kind, he did not contend to simply wallow in powerless obscurity, or rage, rage against the establishment who put those like him down, and passively resents them. NO! He instead created his SHOCKER technology!"

The Two teenagers and the Alien stared at him. 

**"Truly, the most eloquent of naming schemes we have here. Let me guess. It shocks people with bolts of lightning."**

"Nope, it produces explosions with compressed burst of Air."

Venom sputtered, before replying in an angry voice. 

**"Then why is he called Shocker?! He isn't shocking people at all! That name makes no goddamn sense!"**

Shocker surprisingly agreed. 

"Aye… Tha higher-ups decided on it." He shrugged his shoulders. "Personally ah, wanted to be Soundwave, but tha higher-ups told me to get bent when Ah suggested it."

"It is what it is."

His voice turned darker, as he raised one of his hands up, and pointed it towards Izuku and Mina. 

"Now… Let's get this show on Tha road."

Izuku and Mina were both about to move when Rhino interjected. 

"Wait, Shocker, we can't start yet, they haven't introduced themselves yet! We can't start before Introductions are over."

Izuku and Mina just stared at him incredulously, while Shocker groaned. 

**"Is this guy for real?"** Venom asked in a tone like he couldn't believe the stupidity of this guy. 

"Unfortunately." Morris replied from the roof floor. Izuku had honestly kinda forgotten he was there. 

"Oh, hi Morris!" Rhino replied cheerfully, seemingly having just noticed him. 

"You okay buddy?" 

"I've got several broken ribs." He winced. "So it could have been better. 

"Ah, can't believe you lot got beaten up by Middle schoolers." Shocker shook his head. "Christ that's-" 

Mina made her move. 

So quickly, that Izuku, even with his enhanced reflexes had trouble keeping up, Mina darted to Izuku's side, spun him around as she grabbed his hand, and pulled him along as she sprinted towards the roof edge. 

"WEB!" She screamed at him as they ran. 

Then, faster than Izuku would have believed, they were at the edge of the roof. Without even a hint of hesitation, she jumped off the edge, dragging Izuku along after her. 

Panic set in inside Izuku's mind, as gravity took hold. 

For a small eternity, the ground came up, unavoidably and unstoppable. 

Then, by instinct, his hand shot upwards to the side and a black line sprung forth and attached itself to the top of one of the buildings on the other side. 

Almost instantly, the momentum of their fall was veered sharply sideways, as they began going downwards in a pendulum arc like they were swinging on a vine. As Mina's hand gripped tightly around his own, in a grip like iron the entire way down. 

Then without warning, as they began reached the lowest point of the arc, Izuku's arm, and the liquid encasing it, was hit by an explosion of pain! 

Izuku and Venom both screamed out in agony as the line keeping them up suddenly burst into countless black pieces of liquid. 

Thankfully, they slammed into the ground at a sideways angle, sending the duo rolling from the momentum, rather than just slamming into the ground. 

Which was good, because suddenly, all around them the ground burst to pieces, as invisible explosions hit all around, sending pieces of rock flying. 

Mina had also entered into a roll as they hit the ground, but unlike Izuku's it was a much more controlled affair, and at the end, she jumped right back unto her feet, in a flash of pink and black. 

Izuku forced himself to his feet, pushing himself up, as bangs of pain echoed through his body with every single explosion all around him. 

His hand didn't show any external signs of injury, other than the liquid that should have covered it having seemingly disintegrated, but to Izuku it felt like it had been literarily run over by a car. 

Fucking hell it hurt. 

"YOU OKAY MIDORI?!" Mina screamed over the sound of explosion all around. 

Then she yelped in pain as a piece of Rocky shrapnel hit her in the head. 

She didn't fall over, thank God! But the red that suddenly dyed her pink hair, was probably not a good thing. 

**-FUCK THIS SHIT!-**

Izuku's arm, shot around, completely unprompted, as his entire body turned around, facing the rooftop they had just jumped off from. 

**-THERE!-**

Izuku saw what he was aiming for. A figure in yellow on the rooftop. 

He instinctually moved his hand to aim, and on an internal command, a line of black goo shot from the white piece on his hand, much MUCH thicker than the webline he had used to anchor them to the roof. 

He couldn't hear it, but he both saw and felt his surprise as the man was hit by a black mass hitting him straight in the chest that sent him flying, and burst out at the point of impact to engulf him in a huge black mass. 

For a second he just stood there, crouched, panting as the adrenaline still pumped through his body, the pain in his hand beginning to fade as the black liquid once more flowed forward to engulf it. 

Then reality hit him again, as he remembered Mina was wounded, and he spun around. 

"You okay!?" 

"Yea-yeah." Mina answered though she winced as she said it, one hand over the spot where the blood came from. 

"It's just a cut."

Oh, thank God! Izuku thought immediately. If it had been a hole… 

He quickly got to his feet and walked over to her. 

"Venom, can you help her?" 

The Black mass around his head detached itself once more and formed a head. 

**"We can close the wound and stop the bleeding, Aye! Healing it is another story. We can only heal you."**

He bit his lip. 

"It'll have to do."

He reached forward his hand to Mina's wound, and though she flinched at his touch, she did lower the bloodstained hand and allow his black hand to touch the wound. 

Suddenly, making both of them jump in startled surprise, a massive  **crash** sounded, as something slammed into the road not too far from them. 

Both their heads and attention snapped towards the origin of the sound. 

Rising up from a small crater was Rhino still with a huge grin on his face. 

"So, you kids want to just skip Introductions and instead jump straight into tangling with the American Elite eh? Okay, I'll oblige you."

As Izuku and Mina just stared for a second in shock, a piece of black liquid detached itself from Izuku's hand, and jumped over to Mina's head, closing around the wound and stopping the bleeding. 

Then, Rhino lifted his hands, up and backwards in preparations of slamming them down forwards.

Izuku and Mina both realized what was about to happen, and both of them jumped sideways away from the center of the road. 

With a massive crash of Sound, Rhino slammed his hands down into the road in a ground pound, looking like more like Stan Lee's Hulk than anything else, a comparison only reinforced by his only piece of clothing. 

The road, BROKE in half like it had just been cleaved with a giant knife, smaller rocks flying everywhere, and pipes filled with steam bursting up from the ground. 

Izuku landed on a wall, clinging to it, whereas Mina landed on the sidewalk. 

Both the two teenagers gaped in shock an horror at the titanic display of strength. 

**-Huh. Yeah, that's not good. Not good at all.-**

Rhino for his part laughed… Only to yelp as the ground collapsed under him, and he fell into whatever was below the streets here. 

6 seconds later though, he burst straight up again and landed on the road, covered in dust and dirt, both moist and dry.

"Just like a dugtrio…"

Then he turned to face the two teenagers while wiping away dirt from his face. For about 10 seconds, they just stared at each other, both of the younger heroes tense as steel cables. Then, suddenly and with a speed that did not seem to fit his enormous frame, Rhino gripped a large piece of stone, roughly as large as a car, and hurled it at Izuku. 

He jumped in a burst that would have made any jumping spider proud, the rock crashing into the spot where he had just been. 

Izuku landed right by where Mina was, but he didn't turn to face her. Instead, two black lines shot up to where the rock was now embedded in the wall and fastened themselves to it. 

With a scream, Izuku put all his weight into a massive pull, wrenching the stone out of the wall and towards Rhino, hitting him straight on, and with a mighty sound, it exploded into a cluster of shattered rocks and dust. 

Izuku and Mina did not stop and wait until the dust cleared though, instead they began running in the opposite direction away from where Rhino was. 

As they ran, Mina began shooting some Grey liquid out of her hands, covering the street behind them as they ran. 

"What is that?" Izuku called out. 

"Acid!" The pink girl exclaimed. 

Another combined quirk? It seemed like Izuku was the only top student in class who wasn't one. Which made sense, combination quirks were generally the most powerful ones on average and- 

**-The yellow guy broke out of the web by the way. Just thought you'd like to know.-**

Great.

"Shocker broke out of the web!" He exclaimed. 

Mina swore. Then she swore even harder, as the sound of Pursuit came from behind. 

Izuku glanced over his shoulder and only now realized two things. 

The first was just how much Acid Mina had produced behind them. Maybe 10-20 cm layer on top of the street floor behind them. 

The second was that Rhino was completely unfazed by it, as he ran through the liquid without any care in the world. 

Mina immediately stopped producing acid, and instead just turned to run at full speed alongside Izuku. 

She was fast, Faster than Izuku. Unfortunately, as Izuku could feel without looking backwards, Rhino was faster than both of them, as he began to pick up speed behind them at a truly astonishing rate. 

At least in a straight charge. 

As they reached the end of the road, the two of them quickly changed direction right. Rhino instead seemingly couldn't change direction on the fly and just crashed into the building. 

Rhino seemingly hit a load-bearing pillar(Or a dozen, because the entire building, as massive as the one Izuku had fought Uraraka in, collapsed in an enormous, cacophony of sound, as the building caved in on itself on top of Rhino. 

The whole thing took over 30 seconds or so. 

Izuku and Mina, having gone a bit further, before stopping to look, took in the sight of the entire thing caving in on itself. 

**-Think he's dead?-**

"No." Izuku answered. 

If Rhino could have been killed by that, he wouldn't have been half as Infamous as he was. 

As if in response to that, Rhino burst out of the rubble, seemingly none the worse for wear, other than the copious amounts of dust on him. 

At his side, Mina created a ball of sickly green, slimy Acid, but once it was finished she seemingly hesitated in throwing it. 

It wasn't before Rhino finally turned, having cleaned his face, that she made the choice to throw the ball. 

More specifically, she threw it straight at one of his feet. Engulfing it completely in the green goo…. And Rhino simply stepped out of it none the worse for wear. 

The stone beneath disintegrated, in smoke. 

"Holy shit…"

"NOTHING goes through my skin Pink girl! Not fire, not acid, nothing. Well, except for electricity anyway. That goes straight through it no problem."

He paused his steps towards them, a horrified expression flashing over his face. 

"You two don't have hidden electrical powers, do you? Cause that would be really, really bad. For me of course, not for you." 

**-Holy shit this guy is stupid.-** Venom said inside Izuku's mind. Out loud he said:

**"So absolutely nothing goes through that thick, Grey skin of yours? Nothing at all, except electricity?"**

"Yeah, that's right! Absolutely nothing at all."

"What about your face then? It's not covered." Mina asked. 

"Well duh, how would I be able to breathe if it was?" He said in a tone Like Mina had just asked him something incredibly stupid. 

"Mina, can you make the ground slippery? Izuku asked in a tone that hopefully didn't carry far enough that Rhino would hear him." 

Mina tensed but gave a quick nod. 

Alright, showtime. 

Far away, Izuku could feel Shocker reaching the exit of the building they had started this fight on, but he would have to run down an entire street to catch up to them. If he was well fit, that would take him maybe 6 minutes. They had to finish this BEFORE he got here. 

Izuku sprang towards Rhino. 

The Grey titan, proving himself way faster(If about as agile) as his appearance would suggest meet him with a blindingly fast punch. 

It would have sent him flying into the next zone over if it had hit, but Izuku ducked under it, and with some footwork, he darted to the side and behind him, and with a jump, he got maybe 10 meters or away from Rhino. 

As he had hoped, Rhino snapped around to meet him. 

It was at that point, that Mina unleashed a whole bunch of Acid all around Rhino's feet, this one a much lighter shade of Grey than any Acid she had used so far today. 

As Izuku had requested, this acid was apparently very, very slippery, judging by the way Rhino stumbled as he tried to continue pursuing Izuku. 

That was what Izuku had been counting on. 

One webline slammed into Rhino, and with enormous force, he was pulled off his feet and into the air, straight towards Izuku. 

Apparently being taken completely by surprise, he didn't manage to make a countermove as he sailed into the air, straight into Izuku hook. 

It was thrown with the hand who had been hurt so badly earlier, but feeling and strength had returned well enough, other than an underlying, constant pain. 

The punch went straight into Rhino's face and Izuku put EVERYTHING into that punch. The full might of someone who could have lifted a locomotive over his head. 

The blow created a Shockwave that broke the windows of the lowest floor on the nearby building and cracked the ones on the second floor. 

It sent Rhino crashing sideways into a nearby building, and smashing through at least 2 different sets of walls. 

And finally, it broke the first digit on all of Izuku's fingers on his right hand, along with the corresponding knucklebones, except for his thumb. 

"GAAAAARRRGGHH!!!" Izuku screamed in pain, as he cradled his now broken and useless hand. 

As he fell to his knees in shock and pain, Mina worriedly ran up to him and knelt down. 

"You okay Midori?" Izuku groaned in pain. "Yeah… pretty stupid question."

She put her arm around him and helped him back to his feet. 

"We still need to deal with Shocker though, before we can-" 

"Man, that fucking hurt." A loud voice said in a cheerful tone. 

Izuku and Mina both froze, and almost in unison, they turned their heads, to where Rhino was walking out of the hole he had made in the wall. Other than a very prominent black eye, he didn't seem to be any worse for wear. 

"Not bad kid, not bad at all. It's months since someone actually managed to wound me. Congrats." He grinned. 

**-Huh. Well, fuck.-**

\---

Shocker was panting as he reached the end of the road. God damn Tel for not sticking around and helping them. This would have been so much easier if they could have just teleporter during battle, but no, that would have been against policy. 

Damn the league and their stupid rules. They had the largest collection of teleporters in the world, and yet they still were treated like fine Chinese porcelain. 

Keep them out of battle if at all possible. 

So, he had been forced to run down an entire building worth of stairs, then an entire street worth of road. He was totally winded as he reached the end of the road. 

And… He almost smacked into the Rhino as he rounded the corner. 

"Shocker!" The Rhino proclaimed, as a large, gray hand shot out and prevented him from falling. 

"We got problems, buddy! They got away!" 

"What do ya mean they got away? How the hell did ya lose em? 

"Well, the black kid shot his goo into my eyes, and blinded me for a second before i-" 

"Nevermind, ah don't wanna know."

He stepped out into the street and sighed. 

As he began to modify his gauntlets for the task, he glanced over at The Rhino, and noticed his black eye. 

"Fucking hell, they were strong enough ta do that to you?" 

"Yeah, that black marvel of Muscle really Pounded me through that wall."

"...Yeah. I'm sure he did. Anyhow…" 

He finished his modification, and the left gauntlet suddenly began to hum with a sound like periodic mechanical whistling. 

After a second, sounds all around were picked up. The sound of steam beneath, spiders and insects buzzing about in the buildings, and far more faintly and far away the sound of battle. In particularly a loud crash as two doors flew off their handle by the entrance. 

Thousands of sounds, small and large, far, far too many for any human mind to be able to pick up and sort through them. 

Luckily for Shocker, they didn't live during the turn of the Millenia, and a small app he had installed in these gauntlets did what his mind and senses could not. 

The sound of two people breathing was picked up, and over his visor, directions showed up, pinpointing them around 264 meters away. 

"Let's finish this trip and go home to sweet Haiti."


	14. A Name

"You sure you can't climb?" 

Izuku winced at the question, still cradling his broken hand. 

**"If he had more experience he could run up walls without using his hands, but we haven't really covered it yet, so no."**

Mina nodded, having seemingly accepted the reasoning. Then she put forth her hand and melted the lock on the door to one of the buildings, the two young heroes hurrying in, and quickly, with as little extra sound as possible they began making their way up the stairs towards the roof. 

It would be an obvious tell about where they had gone to regroup if the two saw the door, but frankly, their best shield right now was them not knowing where they had gone in the first place. 

With any luck, the Villains would have to search all the buildings to look for them. That could take half an hour, just checking the doors.

And that was assuming they didn't just do less subtle means. 

Izuku was painfully aware that if Rhino and Shocker decided to just start leveling the buildings in a methodical manner, there was nothing they could do to stop them. 

It wasn't before they reached the top, that both of them finally stopped moving. Mina was breathing hard, while Izuku desperately tried coming up with a plan, ANY kind of plan. 

After a short while, it was Mina who first put the big question forth. 

"What… What do we do now?" 

Izuku opened his mouth. Then closed it again. Then finally got managed to croak forth an answer. 

"I don't know."

A silence arose again, this one awkward, with a hint underlying panic beneath it. 

It was then that Venom formed a head from Izuku's shoulder. 

**"Well, at this point, a full retreat seems the most logical option."**

His head turned towards the nearest part of the walls of the great dome above them.

**"We can make it to the end of this arena, then use Mina's acid and quietly make our way out. Then, it's just a bit of running and jumping back towards the school."**

It seemed such a logical suggestion, and a large part of Izuku wanted to agree with him. 

"We can't." He said instead, gritting his teeth through the pain in his hand. 

Both Mina and Venom turned to look at him. 

**"Why not? We do not have the weaponry to deal with Rhino, and given his face is almost as indestructible as his body, most likely Mina's Acid won't do much damage against it either. And even if it does, he'll be on guard for attacks against his face now."** The symbiote hesitated briefly, before continuing.  **"Or at least that is what any warrior with any semblance of battle sense would do. Which, granted he might not have."**

"If we run away… Then those two are just gonna move on to the next area, and join the battle there. And if we can't beat him, the rest of the class won't be able to either. Unless he's unfortunate enough to run into Uraraka-chan or Kaminari on the first move, he will  **Kill** whoever it is he finds next."

The chances of him running into the gravitation girl or the living battery who seemed to be the only natural counters he had in this class were far, far too low for Izuku to EVER bet lives on it. 

"We can't avoid them forever either. If we just run away and they never see us, they'll sooner or later decide we are not here anymore, and then move on."

It was an awful, awful situation. Mina also seems to agree with him, judging by how worried and stressed she currently looked. 

"So, it's basically like we're Luffy at Enies Lobby, and they're Lucci."

Izuku blinked. Who? 

**"Yeah, pretty much."** Venom affirmed.  **"We'll have to fight them, and soon, or they'll go on and murder the rest of the class."**

Mina bit her lip, but then suddenly lightened up. 

"Why don't we go get them then? Kaminari and Uraraka I mean! One of us could stay here, and act like a distraction, while the other one goes and find them and bring them back here!" 

Mina sounded so hopeful and back to her usual happy self, that Izuku felt really, really bad about having to kill this plan immediately. There were way too many holes in it. 

"We don't know where either of them are." He winced as he instinctually, and very stupidly, motioned with his hand towards the other zones. 

"They could be anywhere right now. And the absolute worst-case scenario, we'd have to go through every single zone to find them, unless we have the incredible luck to run into them immediately. Sure Venom's ability to sense people would help with the search, but I'd still have to go physically to every single location to scout, given the maximum range of that sensing is…"

He looked questioningly over at the liquid head.

**"70 Meters or so from our any piece of our self."**

"...Right. Point is we DON'T have that kinda time. Neither of us is capable of stalling Rhino alone for what could take over an hour, not to mention that Shocker will be there for support."

He did not mention his own feelings. Of just how unwilling he was leaving anyone to potentially die, while he ran off to safety. It might have made perfect logical sense, but it was still a concept that made him feel incredibly uneasy. 

Mina's briefly reawakened cheer deflated, as quickly as it came. 

"So what do we do then?" 

Izuku thought. He REALLY thought. Thought harder and with more effort than he had ever done in his life about this problem, and any way, any possible way they could bypass Rhino's skin. 

There was one more weapon he hadn't used yet. But no, even if he had been willing to use it, he'd still have to get it into Rhino's veins. 

OK, what did he know about Rhino's strengths and weaknesses? 

The first thing that came to mind was the one he had admitted himself. 

Electricity. Lightning. But no, that didn't help them much here. Although… 

They were in the ruined building's section of the park, or more accurate, a section full of buildings that hadn't been toppled or submerged underground. 

There were still lights on inside the buildings here, which would mean there had to be electricity of some kind. 

The problem was first to locate it, then how to utilize it. Then whether or not the kind of energy that kept the lights on in this building would be enough to take out Rhino. 

Luring rhino inside a building without toppling it would be a hard enough task, without also having to lure him to he electrical outlet, wherever that was. 

There was also another weakness, one obvious one, that he had deduced himself, but utilizing it was another story. 

His gaze turned to the distant fire zone, where the red glimmer of flames was visible in the distance. 

If he could somehow get Rhino all the way over there, then mayhaps-

Izuku's thoughts were interrupted by a massive, and incredible loud explosive sound from somewhere directly beneath their feet, along with the entire building shaking to it's very foundations. 

Then, the entire building began to collapse sideways. 

Fear instantly gripped Izuku as both him and Mina shot back up to their feet, and began sprinting towards the edge. 

This time though, they didn't manage to jump over it in time, as another massive explosion burst apart another huge chunk of the building beneath them, seemingly making the toppling building literarily crumble into pieces as it fell. 

The ground literarily fell from under them. As the toppling roof broke to pieces. 

Izuku's good hand Instinctually shot towards mina, and a web shot out, and linked the two of them, with a 3-meter long web. 

Then, with a scream through gritted teeth, he pointed his broken hand towards the side of another, still standing building. 

It was at this point that Izuku learned what happened when he shot a webline to swing from, but rather than maneuvering his hand to grab it, he instead let the black suit around the two shooters hold it. 

Namely, that as he suddenly moved in that direction, he felt a sharp, and tight wrench sideways, localized in his hand. 

Normally, it was something he could have dealt with with a bit of discomfort. 

However, with said hand having 4 broken fingers, an unimaginable pain shot down from the broken digits, and he screamed in pain. 

Pain which blinded him, and made him slam directly sideways into the wall he had attached himself to. Further down below, Mina also slammed into the wall, though unlike him she hit feet first, and didn't have the wind knocked out of her. 

Suddenly, Venom disintegrated both the webline holding Mina up and the one who had been holding Izuku himself up. 

Which was good, because the place his body had been just 3 seconds earlier, suddenly burst to pieces as another explosion hit the wall exactly where he had just been. 

The explosion still sent a bang of pain throughout Izuku's body. 

Izuku twisted around in the air and managed to land on his feet, barely missing Mina, who scrambled out of the way, having done the exact same. 

They then leaped out of the way from a wall of Grey that suddenly charged towards where they had fallen. 

Rhino smashed into the wall, and, judging from the sounds, just kept on trucking until he smashed out the other side. 

That the Rhino made himself scarce from the battlefield for a brief moment was very fortunate for the two heroes. For they had enough problems avoiding Shocker's bursts of air, which he was very liberal with as everything burst around them, showering them in small rocks, like hail. 

Then, Mina produced something Izuku hadn't seen her do before, as a wall of Grey goo suddenly formed in front of her, between her and Shocker. 

The wall looked like melting ice cream and wasn't particularly stable. Even without any interference from Shocker, the thing would probably not have lasted too long. 

As it was, an explosion hit right to the side of it, bursting it to pieces, showering the entire battlefield left of where it had stood with acid, and the moment it hit the ground the concrete immediately began to disintegrate into smoke. 

Mayhaps Shocker thought the plan had been to hit him with acid and hadn't hit it straight on. 

That decision had saved Mina from learning whether the shield would have protected her at all. 

Before Shocker could fire off another burst, this time at an entirely unshielded Mina, however, a burst of black web hit his visor straight in, instantly engulfing it and stripping him of sight. 

Instinctually, the quilt padded man began to claw at it, trying to remove it. 

That was a mistake however, as Izuku leaped towards him, and without the man being able to see him, he had no trouble landing a punch to his ribs. 

The fact that his enemy was a quirkless, made Izuku pull his punches, and the blow would have simply cracked his ribs or so, or at least that was Izuku's plan. 

Unfortunately, his enemy was wearing a piece of clothing made to protect him from shrapnel, and the blow didn't do more than knock him backward and knock the wind out of him. 

Izuku wanted to press in, but instead, Venom forced him to duck, as a swing from Rhino came as if from nowhere, and barely missed his head. The grey horned titan had apparently made it back through the building. 

He jumped back to put some distance between himself and Rhino, as the larger man swung again for his head. 

As Izuku landed and got into an awkward stance, half hunched over protecting his broken hand, 2 things happened in quick succession. 

The first was that a ball of Grey liquid hit one of Shocker's gauntlets, instantly making it's holder scream in pain and quickly unhooking the entire device, as the metal melted from the acid. 

The second was that almost immediately afterward, the acid that had just been spread out over the street finished melting their way through the upper floor, and had seemingly hit some pipes, for a huge plume of steam burst into the air, making all 4 of them flinch, and hastily jump away from it. 

Mina and Izuku both did so independently, whole Rhino grabbed Shocker and jumped out of the way of the huge plume of hot water vapor. 

Izuku landed on the wall and instantly yelled down at Mina. Where the vapor had seemingly washed away the piece of Venom that had stuck to her head, making her begin to bleed again. Hopefully, that had been everything it had done. 

"Are you okay Mina?" 

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine!" She yelled back in a tone that made it clear she was in sudden pain again. 

Shit. Shit, shit, shit! 

The hell did they do now? 

His gaze looked from Mina to Shocker and Rhino, where the larger man was helping the smaller one remove the loose pieces of the now destroyed gauntlet. The black goo hadn't left the visor thank God. 

The steam made it hard to see, but thankfully, the steam began to let up, the pressure seemingly having seemingly lessened. 

He glanced towards the hole into the ground, where he now realized the network of pipes ran in what seemed to be a tunnel. This sections equivalent of an oversized sewer apparently. 

The underground of the park was interconnected he realized. The pipes that went beneath here either went to the water slide, or to the fire section.

He froze. 

Maybe… Maybe he could… 

"MINA! CAN YOU DEAL WITH SHOCKER ALONE?" 

The pink girl's head shot up looking at him, confusion marking her blood-covered face. 

It seems as if it took a moment before his question sunk in, and she finally replied. 

"Yeah, sure! I'll do it!"

She trusted him. Now he just had to hope that her trust wasn't misplaced. 

He jumped from the wall, and landed on the wet ground, fastening himself straight to the floor with webbing. 

Then, gritting his teeth, knowing just how much this would hurt, he shot out two webs straight at Rhino's back. Then, with some motion, he formed the two coils into. One at his end, and forcing himself to grab the rope of black with both hands, his shattered fingers screaming in pain unlike any he had ever felt since he wrenched his foot, he  **WRENCHED** Rhino off his feet and into the air,  **SLAMMING** him down straight into the now open hole. 

He didn't stop there though. He couldn't. Not if he wanted to actually win here. So, instead, his poor, poor hand still screaming in pain, he sprang after him and jumped down into the hole. 

He landed straight on Rhino's back, toppling the giant who had just tried to rise, right back into the ground again. 

The acid had seemingly evaporated at this level, and Izuku didn't fail to understand why. 

The moment he jumped down, the heat washed over him, like he had just jumped straight down into an oven. 

**-We really, REALLY hope you know what you're doing Izuku.-** Venom said in his mind, in a tone that was a strange mix between fear and curiousness.

So did he. 

The tunnel wasn't exactly the largest thing in the world, but it was large enough that Rhino barely was able to stand fully upright, with his horn barely not hitting the roof. 

This tunnel was made so that people were able to comfortably move through it to maintain the pipes, for whatever they were used for. 

He rather doubted they were this damned hot during maintenance though. 

"Man, I fucking hate sewer levels," Rhino muttered as he got back up to his feet. 

"It's… It isn't a sewer. This is for the rest of the park!" Izuku replied. 

Rhino frowned, beads of sweat beginning to form around his brows. 

"What, this stuff goes to the fire zone?" He furrowed his brows, as he suddenly began sniffing. "Yeah, now that you mention it, I didn't think this steam smelled like water. What do you guys use for this crap anyway?" 

"No… No idea." Huh. Izuku hadn't really considered it, but he didn't actually smell much when he had this mask in. That was of course completely logical, but he hadn't considered it before. 

"Anyway kid, you really wanna have our glorious final bout here?" He motioned towards the pipelined walls.

"It's not exactly a glorious place. Not to mention your spider jumping and running around won't work here kid. Here it'll just be good old fisticuffs.". 

In response, Izuku fell into a stance, this time forcing his broken hand up, and not cradling it. 

"I'm sure. This will be where we finish this."

Rhino stared at him for a moment of silence, making Izuku thank him in his mind the longer this dragged out, the better. 

"Damn, you're actually serious?" 

Then he burst into a wide grin, looking like a mountain had suddenly taken a face. 

"Man, it's been a while since I met a guy with convictions in his own stuff. You know, the boss actually wants us to recruit promising young spitfires when we meet them. I could go on and give you the traditional Villainy offer of you joining us, but frankly…" His grin turned serious." If you were the kind who would turn on his own, you wouldn't be much of a hero now would you?"

"No. I wouldn't." 

"Excellent!" He rolled his arms in a windup manner, stretching his muscles. 

"By the way, I just realized, you never did tell me your name."

"My… Name?" 

"Yeah, your name. Not your birth name, your real name, the name you chose yourself. The name you want history to remember you by. What is it?" 

The tone of the question was friendly and jovial, it was an honest question, by a soul who truly wanted to know. 

For Izuku though, the question came completely out of left field. Who was he? He was Izuku Midoriya. He had been a shy weakling obsessed with heroism, who had made a bargain with a being from beyond the stars for power. 

There was a name from that period of his life. One an old friend had labeled him with, not out of affection, but to put him down. 

Deku. 

He hated that name. 

He remembered his childhood where he had proposed many potential hero names. 

For a split second, he almost blurted out one of them. 

But he didn't. Mighty Man, Captain All Might, or All Might Junior were the product of a child, and he wasn't a child anymore. 

And even if he was, he wasn't all Might's child. 

That was Uraraka, not him. 

The idea of calling himself Venom briefly fluttered through his mind, but he didn't say that either. 

He wasn't Venom. No more than Venom was him. 

He thought for a moment, before just admitting the truth. 

"I don't have one."

Rhino's face went into a comical shock like Izuku had just admitted something completely out of left field, he would never have imagined. 

"You don't have a name?!" Rhino proclaimed in a tone that begged for him to add "Egads!" at the end. 

"You gotta make yourself a name kid! Being a hero and a villain is all about remaking yourself into something new, something better, and superior to what you were before! And that journey starts with your new name!" 

That… wasn't too far off from his life after bonding actually. 

"Your name is important kid! It's your legacy, your mark in history, it's what makes you you! If you die here, do you think anyone is going to remember that random kid from Yuei that died in his first week?" 

"I'm not go **ing to die here."**

Rhino suddenly pointed a finger at him. 

"See? THAT is exactly what I'm talking about. You got guts kid! You've seen what I can do, and you're still willing to go toe to toe with me, Mano a Mano! That's more than half the American Heroes I've met. And yet you still plan to come at me intending to win! Win or lose, it's a course of actions that anyone can be proud of!"

"But instead of tying that glory to a name, a symbol, something larger than yourself, you remain in the world of common people! Never rising above the rest! You gotta have a name kid! Something amazing! Something spectacular! Something you can be proud to attach every single action you ever make to!"

"Okay, but… I still don't have one right now."

Rhino glared at him. Then sighed. 

"Alright then, nameless hero. I shall remember you. One or way or another, despite your lack of name. Now… Let's begin-" 

The moment he proclaimed the last word, Izuku's good hand shot up, and a large and wide web shot out into the wall to his left, and with a pull of titanic strength, Izuku wrenched the pipes from the wall, filling the entire spot where Rhino stood with steam from whatever the stuff these pipes pumped through them. 

Rhino coughed, but he didn't seem to have been slowed down all that much as he burst forward. 

Izuku had expected a punch, but instead, the giant kicked with his massive Grey foot, straight where Izuku had been. 

Izuku sidestepped, and he felt the air pressure as the kick came within a couple of centimeters of hitting him. 

Izuku danced under Rhino's arm, and- and straight into the steam. 

It was like being cooked alive in tar, as the black suit began to melt from the heat. 

Izuku screamed as he whirled, desperately trying to remain on his feet, and facing Rhino, as Venom screamed just as loud inside of Izuku's head. 

Then, something hit him. Something hard, and massive, and shaped like a fist hit his chest, harder than the bullet that had scarred his arm, and Izuku was sent flying. 

How long it was, he didn't know. It felt like an eternity as he flew through the air, but mayhaps it was only as little as a few seconds. 

Either way, his journey through their air, ended with a massive "CRASH!!!" as he hit a wall of pipes that burst asunder. 

The only thing that saved him from being cooked alive again, was that he hit the wall with such force that he bounced off of it and hit the floor face first. 

Stars swam before his face, as he struggled to breathe. 

**"UP! GET UP MAN!"** Venom screamed in his head. 

The stars began to dissipate, as he felt the heat right above him abate.

**"SERIOUSLY IZUKU HE'S COMING, GET THE FUCK UP!"**

A hand slammed down and began to forcibly push him up. 

Izuku groggily looked upwards. His chest felt like someone had just hit it with a sledgehammer. It was hard to breathe. 

He felt the vibrations before he saw him. Then the sounds began to hammer through the corridor. 

The Rhino was running down the corridor, and stampeding straight towards him! 

Izuku got his feet under him again, just in the nick of time. Using his enormously powerful legs, he jumped… And slammed straight into the ceiling, where he instinctually fastened himself to it. 

Rhino, no more capable of stopping than when he had chased Izuku and Mina above, slammed straight into the wall… Which promptly broke to pieces, and Izuku could hear the burst of what must have been a dozen more pipes and the steam that followed. 

He hang there for what seemed an eternity. Then, he dropped down, landing on his feet. He almost collapsed from the pain, that shot through his entire chest. 

Then, still almost buckling, he turned to face the Rhino, as he came. 

And he did come. 

Harking, and coughing, and his face completely drenched in sweat to such a degree his eyes were shut as he walked. But he did come, slowly, and weakly. 

Izuku raised his hand, then let forth a webline, hitting him straight in the chest. Then, with a pull that made him feel like all his ribs were broken, he made Rhino topple forward and slam to the ground, right in front of his feet. 

A large and massive hand went up and closed around Izuku's leg. But it had no power. Nothing compared to his anyway.

"Wha… What's… going on? Why… Why am I so… weak…?" 

It was only as Izuku began talking that he realized he dripped blood from his mouth. 

"A mix between… Unnnghh… between what's in the pipes, and a lack of… AARRGHH… OF sweat… to cool the body down…" 

He wrenched his leg free, and putting the webline over his shoulder as he turned, he began to walk down the corridor to where he had just come from, dragging Rhino behind him like a sack.

"I… I realized it… Unngh… when you said nothing goes through…. Your skin… If nothing does… then nothing comes out of it either…"

Izuku forced himself to talk. It made the painful, PAINFUL process of dragging Rhino with him more bearable like it steeled his will to do it. 

"Your face…. It's the only… part of you that sweats… Unnmmmgh… it is fully responsible for… For cooling down your entire body… You're having a heatstroke right now… Along with whatever that flammable gas does… You might not burn… But your lungs are as human as the rest of us… 

He had to get Rhino out. If he left him here, he died.

A part of him told him to just do it, but he did not listen or consider that, darker, alien part of him today. 

This was who he was. Someone who didn't kill when he didn't have to. 

"I… brought you down here… because I realized you'd sweat yourself into unconscious…. The longer we were down here… The more you moved… The more I sprayed you with steam… I Didn't think about it being gas…"

"Huh…" Rhino replied in a hazy tone like he was barely awake. 

"You know… That… That eksplain hov te big man beas me… Wenne I came to the Caribian…"

Venom formed a head, and turned to look at him. 

**"You're so fucking stupid, you've lost this way before, and you didn't realize how, before someone explained HOW to YOU? HOLY SHIT, you really ARE retarded aren't you?"**

But Rhino spoke no more. 

Venom snorted. 

**"The idiot lost consciousness. He better fucking hope the battles are closing down, because if he has to wait for hours to get help for this shit..."**

"He won't die," Izuku said through gritted teeth. 

**"If you say so."**

Dear God, this tunnel was long. Had he really sent him flying all the way through this thing? 

\---

Dealing with Shocker was pretty damn easy really. 

Blinded, and with gauntlet down and still in pain from it's destruction, it wasn't much he could to stop Mina from approaching him at lightning speed, destroy his second one, then put him into the ground, with both hands behind his back. 

It had been easy, keeping him like this, without anything to bind him, was a different story. It was even more so, a problem when she was half terrified Rhino would burst up through the ground at any moment. 

She was really starting to get worried, as the minutes ticked by. Until finally, maybe 10 minutes had passed. 

The accompanying commentary didn't help. 

"Yeh know kid, and don't take this Tha wrong way, but yeh really should get going. Rhino will crush tha boy eventually, and when he does-" 

"Midori will win." She said harshly. He had to win. He had a plan after all. He would win. He wouldn't have so clearly split up the two of them if he didn't have a plan. 

She had to keep telling herself that. He was a capable guy, probably the most capable in the class along with Uraraka. 

He'd manage himself. 

She kept telling herself that he would be fine.

It was still a shock when the limp body of Rhino was unceremoniously thrown up from the hole, and crashed into the ground, sprawled flat on his back. 

One of the most feared in the USA. 

Shortly afterwards, Izuku crawled up from the hole, rising to his feet like a shadow given life. 

For a moment, Mina and Shocker(His visor having been ripped off and crushed by Mina) stared at him as he walked slowly over to Rhino, and began webbing him to the ground.

"Yeh beat Rhino…" Shocker said in a tone of Awe mixed with complete and utter shock.

It was as if at that moment Izuku actually realized they were there, and a spell was broken, as he stumbled clutching his ribs. 

Mina didn't think, and in a burst of speed, she moved over to his side, helping him stand. 

"You okay Midori?"

**"He's cracked or broken all of his Ribs to varying degrees. Only our powers are keeping him upright. Also, we shouldn't let our enemies run around."**

With that last line, Venom forced Izuku broken hand up, and a bunch of black webs encased Shocker to the ground. 

With that motion, it seemed all energy had gone out of Izuku, and he really crumpled to the ground, only her arm keeping him from falling to the floor. 

"Holy shit man, we need to get you to recovery girl!" 

"Rhino… He… needs medical help."

She stared at him. 

He had literally broken and cracked all his ribs, yet he still wanted to help the guys who had just tried to murder him.

"We'll do that too. For now, we need to get you-" At that moment, a massive crash from above sounded. 

Her head turned upwards, and so did Venom's, though Izuku's face was still pointed downwards to the ground. 

A massive, massive hole had just opened up in the dome of the park. And Mina, with her incredible eyesight, got a brief, brief glimpse of a figure flying through the sky. But then she blinked, and she didn't see it anymore. 

**"Hopefully, that was good for our side."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I was originally going to have this and the last chapter be 1 mega one, but I decided to split it for pacing reasons, thinking this final chapter would be one of my longest.
> 
> Still don't know if I did the right thing with that, but man, despite me being pretty happy with this chapter, I wastly overestimated how long this one would be.


	15. Aftermath

Izuku felt nothing but pain, beating through his lungs like stakes with every breath, all the way back to the school. 

As Mina carried him in her arms, he also very quickly learned the downsides of having a relatively powerful healing factor. 

It was an aspect of his powers he had never really thought would have a downsize, but as Venom explained in his mind, that same healing factor was now keeping him conscious, whereas any normal person would have been knocked out by the pain and damage. 

That was a good thing that had saved his life in the battle itself. Not so much now where he had to suffer through every waking moment in agony, as his mind just got clearer, and the pain sharper as it did so. 

Adding to his discomfort was occasionally coughing up thick bouts of blood. That didn't help with his pained breathing, nor did the way Mina would stiffen up every time it happened. 

As it turned out, their side had thankfully won the battle. 

While they had been dealing with Rhino and Shocker, All Might had come, fought the brain guy, and won a spectacular victory by sending him flying through the roof. 

And with him, or a bit after, Izuku wasn't entirely sure how it had gone down, the rest of the teachers had come and decisively driven away the remaining villains, and as they got on a car back to the school, he heard the sirens of police cars outside as they passed. 

Venom had made some snarky comments about the cavalry of law and order finally arriving, but Izuku ignored it. 

He didn't manage to ask any questions himself, but thankfully Mina asked the question he so desperately worried about, as well as telling the adults about Rhino needing medical help. 

No one had died. All the students had made it out fine, with him and Mina being the only ones truly wounded. And as long as Rhino got medical help, none of the Villains would die either. 

It had been an unambiguous victory for the forces of good. And even as he coughed up more blood, a relieved smile came to his face. 

No one had died. 

Thank God in heaven. 

\---

"Merde." 

Tifa Rolle, better known as the criminal Tel, stood on edge of a rooftop, staring down at a scene that seemed ludicrous to her. 

It was her standard procedure. She'd leave Rhino and Shocker to do their thing, and unless they called her up, she'd only return after half an hour. 

That had almost always been enough time for Rhino to deal with whoever it was he was fighting, while she could go enjoy a soda and some snacks. 

She had been in a great mood, thinking she would finally get revenge for that embarrassing failed mission where they lost hammerhead, tons of the shitty Trigger drug the Japs were so fond of, and she had gotten her jaw and her finger broken at the hands of the snotty brat with the green hair. 

And so, it had been a shock as she came back to the scene, and after a bit of tracking across the rooftops, she had finally found Rhino and Shocker. 

On the ground below her being apprehended by several pro heroes, was Rhino, clearly unconscious, and Shocker webbed up in a black cocoon. 

It had seemed such an impossible sight she had done a double-take, just gaping down at them, before swearing. 

No, it was real. That were the two of them, and Rhino, one of the physically strongest people she had ever meet, was lying unconscious on the ground. 

Someone had actually beaten them. 

This was actually happening. 

Swearing was a mistake as it turned out, as literarily 4 seconds later, two bullets slammed into her chest, one through her arm, and one through her left leg, as she was thrown back towards the roof floor screaming. 

She never hit it, however, as in a flash of purple energy, she vanished from the land of the rising sun. 

And instead slammed into padded ground, in a white room. 

Her screams of pain immediately woke attention of the guy on duty at the moment, and he almost scrambled over himself as he ripped bandages off the table he was sitting at as he came towards her. 

"Tel? The fuck happened?"

He quickly bent down, and not saying another word, he began to hastily bandage her two bleeding limbs, as she swore in pain the entire way. 

As he tightened the bandage, she swore between gritted teeth from the pain. God, it Hurt being shot! What kinda hero used guns anyway?

The man she now recognized as Tom, stared down at her worried, as he was bent over her on one knee. 

"I'll go get someone to carry you, then we can get you actual treatme-" Her hand shot up, and clench the hem of his shirt in her fist. "NO! I... I need to talk to the Big Man, NOW! RIGHT AWAY!" 

Tom got a confused look on his face, but thankfully he went with it and did NOT start asking questions at her. 

What he had to say though, wasn't much better. 

"You can't. The Big Man is out meeting the Brazilian delegates. We can't interrupt that, even if I could contact him right now."

Her eyes widened. That was TODAY? FUCK! 

"Ok, so who IS in charge here now then?" 

\---

The healing Kiss from recovery Girl was like the hand of God reaching down and curing all his ails. 

In one moment, he was lying flat on his back over a stretcher. The next, all his pain was gone, only the coppery taste of blood in his mouth revealing that he had ever suffered any injury at all. 

As he got up on his feet, the small elderly woman moved on, and just as Miraculously as she had healed him, she did the same to Mina, who had wrapped a ripped-off piece of Shockers yellow quilt costume around her head to stop the bleeding. 

Judging by how she looked, as she hesitantly took off the makeshift bandage, with dried blood crusting half of her long, Fluffy pink mane, and her face as well, one would probably have judged her to be far, far worse off than Izuku. 

"WOW. It's completely gone!" Mina marveled as she brought her hand up, obviously tracing where the wound had just been. 

As Izuku got to his feet, Recovery Girl turned towards him with an expression that distinctly told him to get back unto the bed, making him freeze in his tracks. 

Then her harsh face softened. 

"That's right, you have a healing factor don't you?" 

Izuku mutely nodded in affirmation, for a moment wondering how in the world she could have known about that, only to remember he had written it down when he had updated his quirk description before entering the entrance exam. 

"In that case, you can get up and move as you please. I have some other patients I need to take care of at the moment."

She then turned to Mina and nodded towards a water tap and a pretty large sink in the corner of the room. 

"You'll want to clean your hair and face now dear. The police will want your statements now that you're treated and trust me, you do NOT want to let it finish drying up before you begin cleaning your hair. Just give your face and hair a quick cleanup now, then you can take a shower to finish it, after the police statements. Those might take half an hour or more."

Mina nodded, and hastily went over to the spring, as Recovery Girl turned towards Izuku as he got up. 

"The detective taking the statements will be with you shortly, he just needs to finish talking with All Might."

Then, she left, leaving the teenagers and the alien, alone in the room. 

As he heard the water being turned on as Mina began her impromptu hair cleaning, Izuku went to the window and looked out. 

Below he could see dozens of policemen, all armed and patrolling the school ground. 

He could also see students being escorted out of the school itself and either into police cars, or cars of what he assumed to be their families coming to pick them up. 

He supposed it would be silly to think the rest of the school would just continue on for the day as if nothing had happened. 

Everyone was being escorted home, not just his class. 

With a pang of anger, he saw Mrs. Bakugou having come to pick up Katsuki, and after having given her son a worried hug, the blonde boy had seemingly gotten into a shouting match and argument with her as they walked to her car. 

The anger of seeing Katsuki was quickly drowned however, by questions. 

Questions he had put aside during the attack, and questions the attack had raised. 

For one thing, there was All Might and his apparent limit. 

What did that mean? 

By itself, it was potentially devastating news for Japan's hero society as a whole. 

But… there was Uraraka, a girl who completely changed everything. All Might had chosen to become a teacher here this year, almost certainly to train up his daughter. 

Izuku had thought it was just to make sure she became the best hero she could be, and that wasn't exactly wrong. 

But no, the reason he was here, wasn't just to make sure she rose high, it was to reach to the  **Top.**

All Might had apparently suffered an injury that had permanently wounded him, and now limited how long he could operate. With that context, he now understood. 

All Might was training his successor. A new symbol of peace to take over when he… 

The thought of All Might retiring would have seen insane, ridiculous, and idiotic to Izuku just 3 months ago. 

Frankly, it still did. But… He accepted it.

It was what it was, and he couldn't do anything about it. He had power beyond anything he had dreamed of two years ago. Power enough that he had actually beaten real, actual Villains. 

And yet… 

His grip tightened on the windows frame. 

He couldn't do anything about it. 

He and Mina had stood up to an incredibly dangerous pair of Villains, and they had won. But in the grand scheme of things, that wouldn't help All Might. 

All he could do was become a Hero in his own right, and hopefully help Uraraka that way. 

He could not become the next symbol of peace, he understood that much. No more than he could become All Might's son.

All he could become was a hero himself.

That was what he wanted to be. Someone who helped people. He did not need to reach the absolute top to do that.

Though… If there was one lesson he had to take from his battle today, it was that he needed power, or rather, combat experience. 

Katsuki's ambition to be the strongest ever built on horrible, and awful motivations, but the wish to become a better fighter wasn't wrong. 

He had won. He had also almost gotten himself killed by unintentionally jumping into searing hot steam. 

He winced at the memory. 

He had to become a better warrior, simple as that. That was the sort of easy, simple mistake that could get you killed, and he would need to be better. 

Other than his musings on All Might and himself, there were also the questions the League of Villains attack had raised for him. 

Morris had claimed the people behind the attack was All For One himself. 

The greatest criminal in Japanese history, the man who had effectively been the ruler of Japan for the 3 decades between the appearance of quirks, and the rise of heroes.

He had sent his men to kill them. No. To kill All Might. 

There were several questions and concerns that raised, both ones that sent shivers down his spine just thinking about them, and practical ones. 

The most obvious question was, why now? Why had he chosen this mission here, where All Might could easily be backed up by a small host of pro heroes in the form of the other teachers? 

There had to have been a whole host of other, earlier and better points to attempt this plan on, and seemingly he hadn't taken them. 

Or had he? 

All Might had taken a devastating Injury… Izuku hadn't considered how he had gotten it. 

Of the Villains All Might had fought in public the specific timeline would line up best with his bouts with Toxic chainsaw, but somehow he doubted the Villain in question was responsible for it. The fact he had actually seen the battle in question was a large reason in that conclusion. 

However, assuming he had suffered the injury in a battle with One for All, or his forces… 

That still did not explain though why All For One had not come himself to this attack. 

It made no sense. 

There was very little footage of All for one, or his powers, but by all accounts, he was a titanic force in battle. 

So why wasn't he here today? 

It just didn't make sense to go through all this effort to set up this invasion, then leave your strongest player at home. 

There had to be an answer here, but if there was, he lacked all the pieces to figure it out. 

Then there was the other man in the shadows. 

The Big Man. 

Unlike All For One, Izuku had never heard of the individual. 

That could be both an indicator of how big the Villain was, or how small. 

If he was big, it was a sign of someone who knew how to keep a low profile. If he was small, then he was a nobody. 

Except he couldn't be small. 

The fact Rhino was working under him proved that well enough. According to the man himself, The Big Man, whoever he was, had beaten Rhino using the same kind of strategy that Izuku had applied. 

That suggested great strength along with high intelligence. 

Then there was all the rest of the things he knew about him. 

Namely that Tel worked for his organization. And if she worked for him, then the guys in the forest did as well. The ones who had tried to make a bargain of trigger, for information to use to kidnap someone. 

They had planned to kidnap someone in Japan, then just happened to invade Yuei a short while later? 

Somehow he could not believe that was a coincidence. 

That still didn't tell him anything about why, or who though. 

Just like with All For One and his faction of Villains, he flat out lacked all information he needed to piece out this puzzle as well. 

He knew that the second group wanted to kidnap someone, he suspected the person in question was here on Yuei, and probably someone in his class. 

And he knew they also worked together for this attack. 

And that was about it. 

"God, this stuff is gonna be such a pain to get out."

He was brought out of his musings by Mina, as she was squeezing water out of her poofy long hair, now mostly free of blood. 

Izuku stiffened, as she stood upwards, and turned towards him, her head turned sideways as she kept squeezing the water out, and into the sink. 

She beamed at him, or more accurately her regular smile suddenly reasserted itself on her face. 

It was at that moment, that Izuku suddenly realized that he was alone with a very cute girl. He could feel the heat rising to his cheeks. 

Mina's expression changed to somewhat curious. 

"You're kinda a shy guy aren't you Midori?" 

Izuku's face turned even brighter.

"I… I suppose."

His mind screamed for him to pull himself together. He had been dealing with Mina for the entire time they had been separated from the rest of the class. He'd managed it just fine before now. 

"Yeah, you were kinda like a totally different person when you fought. Like, you really knew what you were doing, just instantly taking the problem by the horns you know!" 

Izuku just kept blushing, as Mina continued. 

"I never really thought about it, but you were like this with the training match with Uraraka too. During the match you were like a total badass, then once it was over, you got really reserved when we asked you questions."

"I-I guess…?" 

Izuku suspected Mina might think he was considerably less badass during either of his periods of battle if she had been able to see his face underneath his mask at the time. 

"Yeah, like you were really kickass earlier. I mean, you essentially dragged Rhino down into the sewers, and you freaking beat him! All on your own too! Rhino! The guy who toppled the statue of liberty!" 

If Izuku had been blushing before, his face now felt like an oven and looked like someone had painted it with red paint. 

" T-Thanks, bu-but I… I wouldn't have been able to do it if you hadn't been there… I was completely stumped i-in what to do until the acid burned a hole in the ground." 

"No need to try and be humble about winning Midori. Like I get it, I played a part, but really man, that was your win."

She scrunched her face for a moment, before asking. 

"Actually… How… How did you win?" 

The burning sensation in his cheeks went a bit away, as he realized she had asked him a question, and he quickly launched into an explanation. 

"Well I… When… When he said that nothing got through his skin, except… Electricity, I realized th-that if nothing got through it f-from the outside, then n-nothing could get through from the inside either. S-so I brought him done into the u-underground that was steaming hot, c-cause that meant that… He could only sweat through his face… So he was I-incredibly weak against overheating, and a-after a bit of fighting, he got heatstroke and collapsed."

As he finished up, Mina just stared at him, absentmindedly still squeezing her hair. 

"And you got that plan just from one throwaway line he made?" 

The blushing returned, and he nodded. 

"Wow. You really are something else aren't you Midori? Like… That was smart. Like really smart. I kinda thought you were kinda like Luffy, but you're actually more like Sengoku aren't you?" 

He had absolutely no idea who either of those two were, but he just quietly nodded again, not wanting to look like an idiot who didn't know what she was talking about. 

He was just standing there, desperately trying to stop himself from blushing more, when Mina knocking all color out of his cheeks with her next line. 

"So, what was the deal between you and evil teleporter lady? You two have a history?" 

He had completely forgotten he had promised to tell her all about that later, and frankly, he had hoped later would never come. Now it had. 

As Mina finished drying her hair, and just looked at him expectedly, Izuku tried desperately to find some way to get out of telling the story without just flat out lying. 

"I… Well you see…" 

An awkward pause followed as Mina's looked became more puzzled, and Izuku just really, really didn't want to talk about it. On his arm, he felt the circular scar ache. 

He was saved by the door quietly opening, turning Mina's(as well as his own.) attention towards it, as a man who was undoubtedly the detective recovery Lady had been talking about stepped in. 

His clothing being the stereotypical detective trench coat, along with a corresponding hat, kinda gave it away.

"Hello." He greeted in a friendly, if not energetic manner. 

"Hi." Both of them replied, almost at the exact same time. 

"You two must be miss Ashido and Mr. Midoriya." He reached forth his hand towards Izuku. "My name is Naomasa Tsukauchi, I'm a detective working for the police on this matter."

Izuku took his hand, shook it and nodded, showing he had understood what Tsukauchi had just said, and after letting go, Tsukauchi reached forth his hand again to greet Mina, who repeated what Izuku had just done. 

"I'm sorry to bother you at this hour, but I am afraid that we must have your statements before we can let you leave for home with your parents. Once we are done with that, you can wait in by the entrance if you'd like. We have called both your families, and both have said themselves willing to come pick you up directly."

The detective had a subdued, but somehow very winning smile. It was the kind of smile that made you want to like him.

"So, which one of you wish to start? 

\---

Izuku stood by the entrance when Mina finally came from the shower, smelling like strawberries, and with no trace of blood in her hair. 

That had apparently been a mighty endeavor, as she had been in the showers for well over an hour. 

Like Izuku, she had ditched her costume for her regular school uniform. 

Though his had a Stark change for the moment. 

Namely, it was completely dyed black, with a massive white spider on his back. 

"Nice new look, but… Why?" 

He blushed again, but nowhere near as badly as he did in the room two floors up. 

"I… My black suit i-is pretty much armor. And when I use it like this on my clothing, well… It protects me, just like the suit does."

"Huh. Neat and awesome, I like it!" She flashed her thumb up with a grin. 

"I don't think Aizawa will let you keep it like that in class though, but I guess you'll have to talk to him about it."

He nodded. Yeah, he had had similar thoughts. 

For the most part, they were alone by the entrance, the vast majority of students having left already. From their own class, only Shoto remained, a look of complete stoicism on his face as he ignored both of them, along with a couple of girls Izuku didn't know. 

Judging by their age, he thought they must be from 1-B, but that was just a guess on his part. 

A silence arose for a bit, as Mina took out her phone and apparently went through her messages. 

"My dad's gonna be here pretty soon it seems. At least judging by his messages."

Izuku, not really having anything to add, just remained silent. 

"Oh yeah, that reminds me, what's your number Midori?" 

Both the two other remaining girls turned to look at Izuku, who had just turned so red, he might have been a sunset. 

"My… My number?" 

A girl was asking him for his number. 

Mina, not having looked up, just continued. 

"Yeah, I've been trying to get the number of everyone in the class, so far I just lack Katsuki, Shoto, Mineta and-" She turned to look at him. Then she snorted in laughter from Izuku's expression. 

"It's just your phone number man, nothing to be embarrassed about." 

"IT'S354033279" Izuku blurted out incredibly quickly. As the two other girls stared at him, snickering behind their hands he felt like a complete and total moron. Then he felt like even more of an idiot, as he realized he'd need to repeat that again. 

As it turned out, he didn't however, as Mina calmly typed the number down, apparently having caught it, despite his rapid-fire speaking pace. 

"Ok, so I just sent you mine through a message, so just add it to your contacts Kay?" 

He stared at her for a moment. Then what she was saying actually went into his skull, and he sheepishly nodded. 

Mina was about to say something more, but suddenly her attention was diverted over to entrance outside, where a short older man with yellow hair just as puffy as Mina's or Izuku's, dressed in the most stereotypical science outfit imaginable, hastily walked over the school grounds with a panicked expression. 

"Seems my rider's here. See Ya later Midori!" She gave a wave, along with a grin as she walked towards the door. Then she turned her head towards Shota. "And you too Todoroki!" 

The son of the number two hero gave her a nod, but not much more, whereas Izuku, almost forcing his own body against just remaining rigid, gave a timid wave back, along with an equally timid "Later…"

As Mina exited, upon which the scientist guy gave her a big hug, which she reciprocated, Venom finally popped up from his shoulder. 

**-Well look at that, you actually managed to talk to a new girl in conversation. Sure you were burning like a torch the entire time, but hey, you actually spoke, and didn't stutter the entire way. Maybe next you'll be able to meet an entirely new girl, and not blush at all.-**

"You've been way more quiet than usual."

**-Well there are times when the best to move is to just leave you to it. You don't think we're going to hover over your shoulder when you inevitably have sex with someone do you?-**

Izuku, who had just begun to lose the blushing in his cheeks, suddenly flushed so darkly, it went from red to burgundy. It felt like steam was rising from his face. 

And behind him, the girls kept snickering. 

He was saved by Shota of all people. 

"Midoriya, can I ask you some questions?"

Izuku, mortified by all the images that Venom's comment had brought to his mind, snapped his head around, eager for something, ANYTHING not related to girls, to talk about. 

"YES!" 

If Shoto was taken aback by his tone, he didn't show it, and he just continued as if Izuku's face didn't resemble a lobster in color. 

"You and Ashido fought the American villains' Shocker and Rhino correct?" 

"Yes! I-I mean, y-yeah, we-we did! What about it!?" 

"I have some questions about your battle…" 

\---

The police convoy transporting the Villains who had invaded Yuei academy were at high, high alert. 

News that All For One himself was involved in the assault had everyone on edge.

They had made one massive mistake however, in making the choice not to wait on heavy backup from pro heroes, before they began moving the prisoners. 

There had been several offers for Japan's higher ranking heroes, such as endeavor, and edgeshot, and smaller ones like Kamui Woods, to accompany the prisoner convoy. 

In the end, however, the call had been made, and it was decided that speed was the more important factor at the moment. The lesser time they took to get the prisoners to jail and secure cells, the better. 

Had they chosen to wait on powerful escorts, things might have gone differently, but alas, such was hindsight. 

The convoy of police cars, consisting of over 20 vehicles suddenly came to a sudden and abrupt stop as the car in front suddenly and without warning, crashed into the air itself. 

Complete and total chaos followed, as the entire convoy abruptly had to stop. Some managed to stop without crashing into each other. Many were not as fortunate and instead slammed into the cars in front.

As several police officers exited their vehicles, guns drawn, the air itself seemed to have gotten thicker, the temperature having risen several times what it had been. 

That, however, was just the beginning, as the sky, having been clear as it could possibly be, suddenly saw clouds, dark and strong gather above, and around them. 

All around, there was complete confusion, as everyone asked the same question. What the hell was going on? 

Officer Sakasuki was the first to reach the front of the convoy. As he approached, careful and gun drawn, worried about what he was about to find, it seemed as if the very air in front of the car… Moved. 

For just a moment, it seemed as if the place where the ha crashed into, there was a thick, Grey mass… Then a bolt of lightning from above struck his gun, making the cartridge explode. 

He screamed in pain as the explosion took most of his hand with it, and he fell to the ground, clutching his now maimed limb.

Above, a booming voice suddenly appeared, as if from everywhere. So loud, and all around, as if it was broadcasted by loudspeakers from all directions. 

" _ AH, GLORIOUS NIPPON, HOW NICE TO BE ABLE TO PERFORM MY ARTS ON THIS STAGE ONCE MORE!"  _

Above the now downed Sakasuki another set of clouds rapidly gathered, and out from it emerged a figure. 

The figure was dressed in a suit of countless small, green plates, giving him the look as if he was dressed in some stylized lamellar armor of old. 

As if to add to that, above his chest he wore a set of stylized golden plates, one layer above the other, each plate infused with emeralds. 

On his hands and legs, he wore corresponding gauntlets and leg guards respectively, each just as golden as his breastplate, and each also interlined with emeralds. 

By his shoulders were two golden clasps connected the uppermost breastplate, and to them was fastened a giant, thick, billowy purple cape, though calling it a cloak would have been more accurate. 

It was an intimidating appearance, and could easily have worked well for any Villain or hero. 

Or at least it would have, if not for the crown of the outfit. 

For resting atop the cloak that went around the neck, was a giant, blue, dome of glass, covering the head of the man completely, and hiding it from sight. The ball of glass looked like nothing so much as a big fishbowl, turned on it's head. 

It single-handedly took away any gravitas the outfit might have had. 

The man, seemingly completely indifferent to that fact, kept on with his monologue. 

_ "NOW, MY DEAR OFFICERS OF THE LAW… YOU HAVE SOME FRIEND OF MINE IN YOUR CUSTODY… I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU YIELD THEM UP TO ME… LEST YOU SHALL FACE THE WRATH…. OF MYSTERIO!"  _

With that final declaration, 7 bolts of lightning struck behind him. 

The police answer, was for no less than 24 guns to open fire at him from below. 

The bullets seemed to pass through him as if he was a ghost, and he sighed, the echo of which boomed all around. 

_ "VERY WELL! SAY NOT THEN, THAT THOU HASN'T BEEN WARNED OF THE CONSEQUENCES!!!"  _

And with that, he slowly raised his hand, and as the bullets passed through him, he snapped his fingers as he said. 

_ "FULMINOUS VENITE!" _

Bolts of lightning struck from the skies that had so suddenly blackened out the skies, hitting every gun that had been raised, as what had happened to Sakasuki repeated itself 24 times. 

The violence was accompanied by screams of pain and anguish the cars in the back tried to back away, only to slam into a steel wall that had appeared as if from nowhere. 

Mists began to appear, as suddenly as the dark clouds above, and accompanied by lightning, it rolled in over the police convoy.

As it rolled in, the figure that had declared itself Mysterio disappeared from where he had been floating in the sky above. 

In the mist, two small explosions sounded to accompany the screams, along with more gunfire. 

Then flashes of bright purple so powerful that not even the thick fog could hide them. 

The explosions continued, then followed by another round of purple lights. Then, silence. 

Silence as the unseen force moved through the convoy. Unseen, and unstoppable towards the center. Where a large car with enormously thick walls sat like a sitting duck. 

No explosion followed though a sharp sizzling whine sounded throughout the mist. 

Then, after a bit of silence, one singular gunshot rang out. 

Not long afterwards, another purple light was lit up through the mists. 

Then, as sudden as it had come, the mists and the clouds, suddenly began to clear up, and less than 10 minutes later, the sky and the air around was as clear as if it had been all day. 

The gruesome and permanent injuries to over a dozen policemen did not disappear, though only one officer actually died. 

The officer in question was one Hinata Makoto, having been found by the wrenched open doors of the center for the convoy, the ones that had contained Rhino, and his partner Shocker. 

The officer was found on the ground, still clutching her gun, which had been fired exactly once. The way it was pointed was clearly away from her, and towards the door of the armored car. 

The bullet, however, had taken her straight in the head, killing her instantly. 

She was the only dead person on that day. 

The fiasco was one of the most humiliating episodes of Japan's police force in decades. 

The only "Good" aspect of the whole disaster, was that it could have been even worse, as the Villain identified as Mysterio, had only broken out a handful of the criminals, leaving the vast majority still cuffed and helpless. 

Even the mighty noumu, the man who had gone toe to toe with All Might had been left captured. 

Unfortunately, despite his strength, Noumu was only the second most notable prisoner of the convoy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, we've reached the end of the second arc. Next time we'll move on to the Sports festival.


	16. Arc 2 - Tournament of Power -Theobroma cacao

Mina woke with a start, a large crashing sound having echoed through the house. For a moment, her body was as tense as steel, then she relaxed, as she heard the aftermath and the regular sound of her dad admonishing her little sister Mana for whatever it was she had done this time. 

That admonishing happened once a week, and frankly, it was just something she had long since learned to live with as a regular fixture of her home. 

Normally, that sound would have brought a smile to her face, but at the moment, the cheerful pink girl could only think about how much she wanted to sleep in some more, only for her to realize it wasn't gonna happen with all the noise. 

So, after laying in bed for about half a minute, desperately hoping the two of them would stop making such noise, only to be disappointed, she finally admitted defeat and got out of her bed, groaning all the way. 

Mina, cheerful and bubbly though she was, was not a morning person, and being woken up early when she was supposed to be allowed to sleep in for once, did not make the morning better. 

There was only one thing to do about it, however, and as she opened the door to her room and began stalking down the corridor, the only thing at her mind was to sate herself on the only thing that made her feel alive in the morning. 

The sweet, sweet taste of caffeine. 

As she came down the stairs to the second floor, she saw what it was that Mana had done this time, having toppled a bookcase her dad used for storing research, unto its side so papers and books were strewn across the floor. 

On the other side of the room, Mana stood with the usual pose, being told the regular speech by their dad, who desperately tried to imprint into her to stop being as reckless as she was. 

As much as he tried, time and again, the unfortunate fact was that her dad simply didn't have the presence to make Mana take him seriously during his lectures. 

It might have been his height, his complete inability to be intimidating, or just not being a confrontational guy in general, but he had never been able to instill any of his kids with discipline, despite no lack of effort. 

Any discipline the 4 of them had ever gotten, had come from their mom, but she wasn't there right now. 

As she walked up by them, her dad stopped his lecture and turned towards her, and Mana did the same. 

"Morning Sis!" The little squirt said cheerfully, practically beaming at her. 

Unlike Mina, who looked like a blend of her parents, with her dad's hair and face lines, along with her mother's physical build, and having inherited both her parents' quirks into one, Mana took looked much less like either, her hair not being nearly as poofy as her dad's, but not the smooth locks of their mom's either. 

It was big, poofy, and white, but nowhere near the Fluffy mess that was Mina's hair. 

Her facial structure was also more like their mom, but with a softness that hadn't been found on Black Cat's face since her early teenage years, if ever. Said face was also sporting a mischievous and chipper look, which didn't remind Mina much of mom's cool and collected look. 

"Morning…" The older teenager replied in an annoyed, groggy tone. 

Her dad looked at her with worried eyes, his black and yellow eyes that looked so much like hers, looking like he was afraid she was about to fall over or something. 

"Morning Mina."

She nodded, then stepped past them on her quest for the sweet, brown nectar that would get her blood going. 

Finally, she came to the kitchen, where Tomo, her brother's girlfriend sat with a nervous expression, reading something on her phone, as she held a coffee cup in the other hand. 

She raised her head up as Mina entered, then perked up at the sight of the pink girl. 

"Good morning Mina, you sleep well?" 

"I was…"

Then her eyes lit up, as she saw that there was still some coffee left on the mug! YES! 

She hastened over, pulled out a large cup, and poured herself some sweet, sweet nectar of Gods. 

And lucky her, it was cooled off just a bit, allowing her to just start chugging it all down in one go. 

Almost instantly, she began to feel her senses perk up and her mood brightened, as she chugged down the cup of sweet, sweet brown. 

Tomo just stared at her as she downed the coffee in one go, then poured herself another cup, with a look that was a mix between fascination and worry. 

"... You're way too young to be addicted to coffee."

She chuckled. 

"You're never too young to live life to the fullest!"

After finishing her second cup, she decided that was enough for now. She felt, strong, bright, and ready to take on a new day!

"So, where's Ben? Don't tell me he's locked himself in already?" 

"Yeah, pretty much. Some of his stocks fell in price during the night, and he's dealing with that since he got up."

Mina's eyes glanced over at a clock their family had on the wall. It was 11.52, so that meant Ben had been at it for almost 4 hours or so if he got up at his usual time. 

She shook her head. Ben had been working every day, nonstop for the last 4 months, ever since Tomo had moved in with them. The noticeable bump on Tomo's stomach probably being the main reason for his almost slave-like adherence to work. 

"So, how much he lose this time?" 

"About 3 million yen or so."

Tomo tried to say it nonchalantly like it wasn't a big deal, but Mina still winced. 

"It'll be fine." Tomo quickly added, in a tone that was as forced a "fine" as they came. 

"He's lost just as much before."

Yeah, but the last time he didn't have a girlfriend who was only 3 months before birth. 

Not that mom would ever let them starve, but still…

"Anyway, don't worry too much about us Mina. How are you doing?" 

Again? 

How many times were they going to ask that question before everyone stopped asking? 

She had come home after the whole invasion mess, and with the school being closed for the rest of the week while they changed their security, she'd generally stayed at home, where she had been bombarded with questions from both her dad, Tomo, and even occasionally Ben(Who usually only traded teasing insults and quips with her) about how she was feeling. 

Like, she got it, the whole invasion stuff had been really taxing, dangerous, stressful and all that stuff, but the way the three adults in her home acted, it was like they expected her to have a complete mental collapse or something. 

The only one who didn't was her mom, who seemed to be the only one who had really got it. 

She was fine. Honest. Right now, she just really wanted the school to start up again so she could get back into things, and get things back to normal again. 

Not to mention this kinda thing was what she was training for anyway right? Like, being a hero was a nice thing to be, but part of the reason they were so adored was because they actually did go through situations like these.

You didn't make it as a hero if you weren't able to handle a bit of danger. 

Mom had gotten that.

She'd had some harsh words about Yuei for letting this situation happen at all, but her mom had been proud of her and how she'd handled herself, and hadn't minced words telling her so. 

Admittingly, Mina couldn't help but feel her mom hadn't quite bought that she hadn't played a massive role in taking down Rhino. The way she talked about it and the way it had been written in the news kinda sold her on that. 

"Black cats daughter and fellow student defeat the infamous Villain Rhino" Wasn't exactly wrong, but it kinda shifted the majority of praise over from Midori and to her. 

Not that those news had been long in the spotlight, as the whole mess that happened afterward had blown away any enthusiasm the news had had about Rhino's capture. 

Frankly, it had soured her mood about it as well. 

"I'm fine Tomo. Really." She said as she went over to the fridge, fishing out what she intended to eat for breakfast. 

Said breakfast was 4 eggs, 3 large slices of bacon, a pack of Sushi as well as 5 spring rolls. 

Bringing some butter as well, she began to cook her eggs, while she threw the spring rolls in the microwave. 

It took about 6 minutes before she was done, and plopped down all her food on the table. 

The sheer amount did not make Tomo surprised, worried, or fascinated. She'd gotten used to the amount of food Mina and her mom ate long before she'd moved in with them. 

"Any plans for today Mina?" She suddenly asked as Mina had begun tearing into the Sushi. 

The pink hero in training looked up, still chewing the fish in her mouth, got an expression of thought, before swallowing. 

"I was planning to head out and hang with some friends yeah, why do you ask?" 

"Eh, I was planning on getting some fresh air at Oden's later, and I wondered if you wanted to tag along."

The thought of going to the sweetest soup kitchen she knew was very, very tempting, but no, she couldn't. 

"Sorry, but I've kinda agreed to meet up with someone already."

Tomo got an annoyed look, but left it at that, as she returned to whatever it was on her phone that bothered her. 

As Mina was finishing her meal, the youngest member of their family, her sister Mika came in.

While Mina and Mana were a mixture between their parents with varying degrees, Mika was as close to their mother in looks as could be imagined without sharing her quirk. 

Like Mina she had long flowing hair, her's just as white as Mana's but with absolutely no hint of the big poofy hair of her father. 

Her facial structure was also so alike to her mother that hadn't it been for Felicia's blonde hair in her younger days, she would have been a mirror image to pictures from their mom's youth. 

The only area where Mika didn't share her mother's look was her build, as her quirk was nothing alike what either of her parents had. 

Both her and Mana had quirks that related to luck, only in opposite ways. 

Whereas Mana had supernaturally good luck that her mother had always compared to Gladstone Gander, Mika's quirk was instead one that allowed her to inflict horrible, horrible bad luck on whoever she desired, so long as she could see them directly. 

Both potentially very, very powerful quirks though less straightforward and practical than Mina's. 

"Morning Squirt." Mina said in an affectionate tone, her hand shooting out and ruffling the 10-year old's hair as she passed

Said 10-year old laughed and returned her cheerful greeting before heading out to the balcony, presumably to do whatever it was 10-year-olds did on Sundays. 

As she finally finished up her food, put it in the wash, and went back to her room to go grab some clothes before heading out, she passed Mana, cheerfully whistling a tune as she was standing on a chair while putting back all the books in the bookcase she had toppled. 

"Need help?" She offered, stopping right behind her. 

"Nah, dad told me I had to do it myself." The 12-year-old turned around, looking at her curiously. "You heading out?" 

"Yeah, I've got a meeting planned with some friends."

Mana's look got sly all of a sudden. 

"So, just to hang out or is it-" "It's not a date" She cut her little sis off, though not harshly so. 

"I'm just gonna hang out with Uraraka and some other guys."

Mana's face got a look like she was trying to remember something. 

"Uraraka… That's the brown-haired girl, right? The one who's as ripped as mom? Obsessed with food?" 

Mana had never had much tact. But Mina could hardly disagree with that last statement. Uraraka had almost cried from joy seeing their dinner the last time she was here, and she had eaten just as much as Mina had. 

"Yeah, she's the brown-haired one. I'm gonna go hang out with her at the arcade." 

"You gonna be out all day?" 

"Yeah, I should be back around six-" She stopped immediately, and narrowed her eyes at Mana's innocent looking face. 

"Why do you wanna know?" 

Mana in response doubled down on the pure, innocent expression of a green-eyed maiden that had never done anything wrong in her life. 

"Just wanna know when you come back, that's all."

"Uh-huh. Well, have fun with the books. Later."

As she walked away, Mana resuming her cheerful tune, Mina decided that she was locking the door to her room before she left. As in, she was both locking the door, then putting stuff so heavy Mana couldn't open the door, even if she managed to get the lock open. 

She had no plans of coming home after a fun outing with her friends, only to get pranked as she set foot inside her own room. 

She loved that sister of hers, but her love of pranks had made Mina want to throw her out a window more than once. 

After getting herself dressed for the occasion, she moved the bed over with just a bit of effort so it blocked the door, then she locked the door. There, let's see Mana get past those! 

After that, she opened the window and made sure to take some precautions so the window would remain open. She'd screwed that up once before and come home to a locked window, and no way to get inside other than destroying the lock on the door. 

Mom had not been happy about that. 

Then, having made sure the window wouldn't close, she jumped out the window out into the void of 3 stories above the ground. 

\---

When Izuku had decided he needed more experience in using his powers, he had thought the first thing he would be doing would be combat maneuvers, how to use his web, maybe wall-running, which Venom had said was a skill he'd need to work on to really be able to move as he'd like. 

He had not expected his first new training exercise to be walking through a crowd with his eyes closed. 

It was a… Bizarre experience. 

It wasn't like he had some radar sense, that allowed him to "see" everything around him. 

Rather, he was feeling the lives around him, their emotions, their souls. 

It was an aspect of his powerset he hadn't really thought about, but he had realized how potentially useful it was. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but hot damn this thing would be useful in rescue work. 

Being able to feel where people were located would be invaluable in say, a ruined building. 

Of course, there were drawbacks. For one, this wasn't a passive power. Not for him at least. Venom felt like this all the time, but Izuku had to concentrate and focus to make it happen. 

Then of course there was the training. His first lesson was to simply sit and take in all the people around him on this Sunday in Mustafa. 

That had gone just fine enough. The feelings of sensing the emotions of the people around him was a truly emotional experience. 

The next step was less so. 

"OWW!" 

This time he had slammed his head into a shop sign that was on the side of the road. 

With frustration, the feelings of the people around him vanished, like a puff of smoke, and it wasn't until he took a deep breath, eyes still closed, that they returned. 

Around him, the emotions came back, like torches in the night, if there had been absolutely nothing else existing than those burning flames.

Annoyance directed at something not here. What was it? 

Two lovers intertwined, hand in hand. Happiness unlike any else he had felt. 

Two other souls, also intertwined, but only one beaming with love, the other a hatred towards the other. Why? 

Pity, directed in his direction, many felt it. It was a common occurrence today. He had long ago realized he must look like he was a blind teenager where he awkwardly tried to walk without hitting things. 

Why didn't they stop to help, if they thought he was blind? 

**-You're doing well.-** Venom said in his mind. 

Izuku didn't answer. People might ignore a blind guy, but a blind guy who looked like he was crazy? 

That was going to attract attention of the kind he didn't want. 

**-You're not the quickest we have seen, but far from the worst either. Generally, our hosts tend to have a talent for this, or they don't.-**

He kept walking again, moving past the steel sign. 

There were so many people around him. Lives. Human beings. 

Old men, old women, young men, young women, children. It didn't matter. They all burned.

The only one who was different was Venom, whose soul was so, so different than any human soul around. 

Souls. 

God, Izuku had never believed in a deity before he met Venom, not really. He might have sworn by some vague God or spirit, but he hadn't actually believed in things like an afterlife, or a soul as a physical and real tangible thing that existed beyond some vague idea. 

Like many things, it was a worldview that Venom had obliterated after their final bonding. 

Souls were real, actual things. They burned, strong and true, and in them at least, the old saying that all men were born equal was true enough. All those who felt emotions had a soul. 

Whether an afterlife of some sort existed for those souls to go after death, Venom could not enlighten him. 

It was as he walked by a house, that he felt an entirely new emotion. One he hadn't felt before. 

It was strong, powerful, a strange mixture between love, satisfaction, and that feeling that he was so hypersensitive to above all others, adrenaline. 

What was it? There were tons of people with those feelings beyond the walls. What was that feeling? 

He opened his eyes to look at this building, where this strange, strange feeling was so commonplace. 

As Izuku looked up over the entrance, and read the words, he froze in place. Then, slowly, but surely, the blood once more rose to his cheeks. He felt like he was going to die of shame. 

Above the entrance were large, red English letters spelling out two words that were innocent on their own, but taken together had a far different meaning. 

Love Hotel. 

He  **wanted** to  **Die** from shame. 

It wasn't before Venom made some crack about it that he finally woke up, and got a move on. 

This time with open eyes. 

He had had enough of this kind of training at the moment. 

\---

As Izuku moved down the street, hearing the sounds of shops all around, he desperately tried to forget what had just happened. 

Instead, he just wanted to find Uraraka, and do something fun, hang out, do whatever. Anything to take his mind off of what had just happened, and the fact that if he wanted to actually master these powers, he'd have to open himself up again to all emotions around him. 

Instead, he tried to focus on everything around him. 

After the whole invasion had happened, he'd spent the week at home, while helping out at home. 

His mother had acted the way he would have expected her to do, with quite a lot of crying out of worry and gladness that he was okay. 

It was another level of stress his mom didn't need on top of having to deal with work again. 

There wasn't a day where she didn't come home with a stack of documents to review for her job. 

Izuku had done what he could to help her out this week, but he could tell that what was at her mind wasn't her work, but rather him, or rather the thought of him going back to school. 

There wasn't really much he could do about that. He had no idea how to make his mom feel better about this whole mess. At the very least, she had been really, really happy when he told her he was heading out to meet some friends. 

OK, so that was an understatement. She'd almost cried from joy when he told her.

She was way, way too enthusiastic about the fact Izuku actually had friends. 

In any case, Uraraka had invited him to hang out at an arcade, along with some other of their classmates. 

Izuku, having come to the agreed-upon place 2 hours early just to be safe, had hung around awkwardly at the entrance for a while, just chatting with Venom, before the alien had suggested they spend the time they had left training their senses. 

Now, there was half an hour left, so as Izuku once more saw Portgas Arcade, he had expected to have to wait a while yet, for the rest to show up. 

As it was, however, he was greeted by the enthusiastic call of Mina, where the pink girl stood alongside Uraraka and Tenya, waving at him. 

Uraraka was dressed in the same outfit she had worn during the entrance exam, black training pants, and a jacket with a black t-shirt under it. 

Tenya, showcasing what kind of guy he was, was dressed in an outfit that looked more like an off duty salaryman than a teenager out on the town with his friends, wearing a set of perfectly pressed blue jeans, and buttoned-up white collar shirt that just seem didn't complete without a business jacket covering it. 

Mina, on the other hand, wore an outfit that made Izuku immediately blush once more, something the pink girl seemed to have a talent for making him do. 

Mina wore a set of jeans with legs cut so that they were effectively shorts, showcasing her very toned legs in great detail all the way down to her shoes. Over her upper body, she wore a black t-shirt with the words, Acid-Cat, written in pink English letters. Back behind her neck she had taken her enormous poofy mane, and fastened it in a ponytail, giving the rest of her hair an appearance not too dissimilar to Izuku's hair. 

Izuku came to a complete halt, then, after a second of being mentally and physically frozen, he  **forced** his body to move. 

His cheeks were still quite red, as he timidly waved his hand back at the three. 

Thankfully, it was Tenya who stepped forward to greet him. 

"Midoriya! I am glad you are well my friend!" As he talked he motioned towards Izuku, both his hands extended towards him, and hands straight forward, like he was karate chopping the air. 

"Y-You guys are a bit early…"

"Indeed! I met up with Uraraka-san half an hour or so ago, and we found Ashido-San here already! How great luck that we are all here before schedule!"

Isuku nodded, the heat in his cheeks fading out slowly. 

**"So, what games are we gonna play first? We ain't playing music games if that's what you've planned."**

Venom asked as he popped up from Izuku's shoulder. He hadn't exactly been thrilled about it and had made it clear he'd much rather they stayed at home watching movies(Or rather he watched them, Izuku didn't usually join him at the couch.), but Izuku doubted he would mind.

Uraraka and Mina both looked puzzled, Mina tilting her head before Uraraka responded. 

"Ummm… NoT really, but… Why not?" 

"We… We're hypersensitive to loud sounds. It hurts like hell above a certain volume." Izuku explained. 

"Whaaat?" Mina said the normally cheery girl got a comically horrified look in her face. "But we were gonna head to a karaoke bar later.". 

Izuku, suddenly feeling very awkward, could simply apologize for him not being able to participate at said activity.

Mina pouted for a second, then she immediately changed into a more sad look. 

"Well, then we'll just have to find something else we can all do!" 

Her cheerful smile returned.

"Anyway, right now we're gonna play some games!" She motioned for them to follow, as she turned and walked inside Portgas Arcade. 

"Uraraka asked me to find a team game 4 people could play, and I've got several. So, what do you guys want? Beat em ups, shooter, or tank games?" As she walked, she turned around, and as she walked backwards, motioned towards each game in question. 

She was obviously well familiar with the place. 

Izuku being Izuku, wanted to ask if they had any hero themed games, but he held it in, given his experience with gaming was almost exclusively with phone games, whereas he guessed the rest of the group had some more familiarity with this kinda thing. 

He knew pretty much none of the genres Mina had just brought up, other than the basic concepts. 

Tenya stroked his chin. "I would prefer the shooter game personally, what about you two?" He looked at Izuku and Uraraka. 

"Sure we can go with that!" Uraraka said with a grin, then she turned towards Izuku, what do you think?"

"Um… Okay," Izuku said, feeling kinda awkward. 

"Sweet!" Mina said with a pearly white grin, then she walked over to a console, where there were two sets of screens, one set on each side of the console. 

Pulling out some coins, Mina inserted coins inside, and some green numbers appeared on what had been a blank black screen on the side. 

With each coin, the number went higher, until it was 20.00. 

"Alright, then we have 20 minutes. Should be plenty of time for us to have a great time!" 

She flashed them a mischievous and kinda smug grin. 

"Let's see if you can beat the queen of this arcade!"

Then she went over to one side. Izuku, not really knowing what he was supposed to do, felt relief when Uraraka grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him over to the other side, opposite Mina, while Tenya went to the other side joining Mina. 

"Ever played this kinda game before Izuku?" 

".... No."

She looked over at him, worry across her face for a moment, then her face shifted into an encouraging smile. 

"Eh, it's not too hard to learn. You move with the joystick, Fire with the gun, which is kinda self-explanatory, and you reload with the red button at the side. Just don't loadout in the open, you're a sitting duck when you reload."

The gun in question was a plastic gun, connected to a small handheld joystick. It also had a wire connecting it to the machine, presumably to power both the gun and the joystick. 

As he held it, feeling incredibly awkward, Izuku mentally compared the gun in his hand for the ones that his enemies had used. 

No… There was no comparison. This thing was a toy, a thing of plastic, which couldn't be used to harm anyone. Nothing like the guns that had almost killed him back around the new year. 

Then suddenly he was snapped awake as the screen lit up, and he was dropped off in a first-person perspective. The words "Eliminate the Red faction" flashed over the screen, then the game started. 

He found himself in some Aztec like ruin, the only part of his character he actually saw was the gun that went where he pointed it. 

At his side, Uraraka was playing on her own screen, having started by a waterfall, which he had absolutely no idea where it was in relation to him. 

One thing he learned was that his character felt… Off. Maybe he was just growing too used to his own speed, but the game had this weird relation with how you moved in regards to the almost twitchy way you turned around. 

You moved at an average pace, but you had to be careful with how you turned, cause if you moved the gun too quickly around, you'd completely lose control, due to how twitchy and sensitive the camera was. 

He learned that quickly the first time Mina ambushed him from behind. 

As the screen flashed red, he desperately tried to turn and fight back, only for the camera to disorient him, so out of his 4 shot, only one hit. 

As he died, and the extra life counter flashed down, Mina let out a "YESS!" 

As he continued playing, he very quickly learned that Mina hadn't exaggerated how good she was at this game. 

Whereas both Him, Uraraka, and Tenya were affected by the disorienting camera turns, Mina instead seemed to thrive on them, having no difficulty fighting back even as she turned. 

This made her very hard to handle in an all-around gunfight, but the fact her playstyle was incredibly hyper-aggressive style also meant that if Izuku saw her coming, he could position himself well enough to down her, despite her reflexes. 

Still, despite that, when the 20 minutes were up, he had lost 9 of his 10 lives, while Mina had only died 2 times. Uraraka had died 6 times, while Tenya had lost all of his. 

Despite losing, the game was pretty fun, especially at the end, where he had figured out the places to hide and wait for his enemies. 

Tenya in particular had been incredibly easy to ambush. 

As Mina celebrated her victory, the scores from the game flashed over the screen. Then, a short while later, the top scores of the cabinet's history replaced it. 

All 10 top spots were claimed by some guy named, the SuperiorParker. Not even Mina's score had reached his.

\---

3 hours later, they had finally gone through all the team games, the arcade had to offer, and wanting a break, they had headed to a nearby McDonald's. 

As they walked, Izuku gently clapped Tenya on the back. 

The taller boy was in quite a funk, having proved himself absolutely abysmal in every game they'd played. 

As they entered the Macdonalds, it was, as one could expect absolutely full, so it took 10 minutes just to get to take their order. 

Mina had declared she would pay for all of them, which was just fine with Izuku, not having all that much extra cash to spend. 

In the end, he took one of the larger burgers, along with a chocolate milkshake. 

Tenya also took a simple meal, but Mina and Uraraka both ordered 3 massive burgers. 

Izuku had gotten used to Uraraka's massive appetite but was a bit surprised that Mina ate just as much. 

**"So, we assume you've frequented the Portgas Arcade for quite a while, Mina?"** Venom asked as they sat down, to enjoy their milkshakes, though Izuku let his remain untouched, instead wanting to save it so he could enjoy it together with the food.

Mina, who was slurping down her milkshake looked up, then answered. 

"Yeah, I've been going here with my bro, since I was 9." A grin found it's way back on her face. "Been around ever since."

"Your bro?" Izuku asked, just realizing he didn't really know much about Mina's family. 

"Yeah, my big brother. We used to come here all the time to compete before he started working."

"I… I've never heard of him, what agency does he work at?" 

Mina burst out laughing. 

"He's not a hero Midori. He makes a living by gambling on the stock market."

"Oh."

Suddenly he felt like a complete moron. Of course, being a pro hero's son didn't mean you would necessarily follow in her footsteps. 

Tenya, apparently had similar thoughts. 

"So, he isn't part of the family business?" 

"Nope. Not that mom would have taken him in, even if he had managed to get into a hero academy, but he got crushed at the Yuei entrance exam, and didn't try another school."

Izuku stared, and so did the other two. 

"Black cat- I mean, your mom wouldn't have taken him in?" 

"Nope. She's been pretty clear she has no interest in taking any of us in as sidekicks. She wants us to just forget about that stage entirely, and just go straight out from the academy as full heroes."

Following that, a silence followed, only interrupted by slurping from her table, and the indescribable chatter from the other people in the establishment. 

"That's… rather unorthodox of her." Tenya said all slowly. 

"What's wrong with being unorthodox? Tons of the really big heroes jumped straight out into the game without bothering spending so much as a year as sidekicks. Mom, Hawks, even All Might. All of them did amazingly well without ever being sidekicks."

"Still, there is nothing wrong being a sidekick." Tenya argued, the insinuation seemingly having woken real annoyance in him. 

"My brother has 65 Sidekicks, each of them, a hero in their own right."

"Yeah, and my mom has 27. I never said there wasn't anything wrong with being a sidekick Iida, just that I'm not planning on being one."

Tenya seems to want to say something more, but Izuku interrupted. 

"27? I thought she only had 25?"

Mina turned her face towards Izuku, though he didn't instantly flush over as their eyes met this time. That was a good improvement. 

"Yeah, she hired on a couple more heroes after the invasion." 

"Really? What's their names?" He asked eagerly."

"I… Don't really know Midori, I haven't met either of them. I know they're gonna be using our "silk" though. Dad's been working on two new sets of wrist launchers."

Izuku and Iida, both familiar with what she was talking about didn't need clarification, but Uraraka apparently had no idea what she was talking about. 

"Wrist launchers? Silk?" She asked, a curious expression on her face. 

"Black Cat uses a kind of white, sticky substance to travel around cities, and in fights. She launches them from these devices around her wrists, forming incredibly long and strong lines, easily capable of holding up human beings." Izuku explained enthusiastically. 

"WOW. And that's not related to her quirk at all?" 

"Not at all." Mina answered in a proud tone. "My dad invented the stuff a bit after my big bro was born. It's pretty much his one and only claim to fame."

She made a face. 

"He pretty much devoted his entire life to the stuff. You should see the lab he's got for it, under the house. Actually, you know what, you can see for yourself, I'll show you next time you're at my place!"

As Mina kept talking, their food was finally finished, and Tenya went to go pick it all up. 

Izuku, instead sat back, and just listened to Mina tell Uraraka about how her dad had tried to adapt the stuff for all kinds of things, all without any success. 

He had a subdued, but still fully visible smile on his face. Yep. He was getting better at this interacting with the opposite sex stuff. 

He'd actually managed to talk to Mina without tripping over himself for the entire day. Even at the start, he hadn't made a fool of himself, despite how close he had come. 

As Tenya sat down the food and divided out each person's meal, he was in the process of handing Izuku his, when he stopped, and just stared at Izuku. 

Mina and Uraraka, both of whom had been about to eagerly dive into their respective meals, noticed him, then turned to look what he was staring at. 

"Midoriya… Are you… Well..? 

Izuku looked like he had just gotten high, and was in complete and total bliss, the way his eyes rolled up into his skull. It was an incredibly unfitting expression for anyone who was slurping on a milkshake. 

Venom, who manifested on Izuku's shoulder, just made the whole scene worse, as he flat out looked like he was having an orgasm, the way he twisted around. His voice did not help dispel that notion.

**"What…** **what is this Wonderous, WONDEROUS substance?"**

"A… A chocolate Milkshake?" Uraraka said carefully, looking down on said brown milkshake like she wondered if mayhaps it was some darker substance in the container. 

**"Chocolate…? This… This is ADRENALINE GIVEN PHYSICAL FORM!!! It is HEAVEN incarnate!"**

Mina, Tenya, and Uraraka just stared at the two of them, along with everyone around the nearby tables, having turned their head at Venom's voice and it's volume, and all of them were now watching the two of them sitting there in complete ecstasy. At least until Izuku had sucked up all the chocolate milkshake. 

Then, he seemingly instantly realized it was empty, and his eyes shot downward in an annoyed look. 

Then he stiffened, as his eyes went wide as he stared at the 3 of them. Whatever spell the chocolate had had on him seemingly broke, and reality asserted itself again. 

\---

Mina clapped Izuku gently on his back in a consoling manner, though her face was one of someone who had so much difficulty not bursting into laughter. 

"I wanna die…"

The 4 of them had hastily taken all their food with them and had left the shop to find some other place to eat. 

"It's all right Midoriya!" Iida said in a strong voice, with no hint of laughter.

"We all make mistakes and thusly and completely humiliate ourselves for all the world to see sometimes! Our lives do not come to an end from such moments!" 

Izuku just buried his face in his hands even more. 

"Well… Look at the bright side Izuku. At least now you know never to eat chocolate in public anymore."

"Yeah." Mina barely managed not to make her voice crack. "Imagine if you'd done that in the school cafeteria. Better it happened, here amongst friends."

It was a scene that had been so, so funny, that Mina had barely managed not to roll over laughing. 

She was very, very glad she hadn't though. Midori was taking the whole thing really, really hard. The last thing he needed right now was for friends to laugh at his humiliation. 

"You really never had chocolate before?" 

"Not since… Me and Venom bonded…"

Ah, so it was due to Venom then.

Venom for his part had completely blown off the humiliation, and just wanted to know more about chocolate. 

**"So, this wonderous thing is a plant? Something one can grow?"**

"Yeah, Cacao tree is used for all sorts of awesome things. Like Coffee."

**"We must obtain a regular source of this material! AT ONCE! How much does a Cacao tree cost? What is required for it's well being?"**

"Dude, you don't buy a whole tree. Chocolate is cheap, so is coffee. Don't you guys have that stuff at home?

**"No, we do not! This is a grave error that must be corrected!**

Izuku for his part just ignored Venom's outburst, and just kept his head in his hands. 

He kept that up, as the rest of the 4 ate, and it wasn't before they were at the arcade again, that he finally managed to bring his hands down. 

His face was still blood red, but his expression had calmed down a bit, now just looking kinda aimless. 

Well, that wouldn't do at all. 

"Hey, Midori." He turned his head to look at her. "Why don't you take some time out here and eat your meal, then you can join us when you're done okay?" 

She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. 

"We'll be over at the dark souls cabinet when you're, ready okay?."

Izuku stared at her, then nodded, taking the bag she offered him. 

"Are… Are you sure that's the best thing to do?" Uraraka asked as they left him by the entrance. 

"Yeah, he just needs some time alone. He'll be with us when he's ready."

\---

All in all, Mina thought it had been a nice day, as she prepared to get back inside her room. 

She'd had fun along with friends, and despite the rather awkward hiccup at the Macdonalds, Izuku had actually come and rejoined them of his own volition after some time alone. It wasn't THE best outing she had had, but it had been fun. 

And tomorrow she would finally get to go back to school. And that would bring an end to this entire experience of being cooped up at home. 

Yep. It was all going great. 

The finale of the day was jumping in through her window, and since she always took off her shoes before jumping into her room, she wore absolutely nothing as she sailed in through her window and landed feet first on about a dozen Lego pieces Mana had thrown in through her window from the outside. 

Yep, it had been a great, great day. 

And would be even better when she got her hands on Mana. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One thing ive learned about writing is that sometimes youve got the entire chapter out, while other times chapters are built upon several moments you had planned, and its your job to link them together


	17. Announcement

As Izuku once more stepped through the gates of Yuei, he looked around for any obvious signs of heightened security following the week of the school being closed. 

No obvious changes had been made to the entrance from what he could see, other than a new door, nor could he see any obvious changes to the school itself. 

He wasn't sure how to feel about that. Part of him would probably have felt better if the new changes made it easy to see that security had been upped from where it had been. 

The side of Izuku that told him to analyze everything he ever encountered, told him that the new improvements were probably made specifically so that people wouldn't easily be able to tell what the changes were. 

Around him, the rest of the school was entering, seemingly with no care in the world. 

A couple of his classmates, tons of people he didn't know, a girl with messy dark green hair and sharp teeth who he instantly recognized as one of the girls who had laughed at him the last time he was at the entrance. 

She didn't turn to look in his direction, but he felt his cheeks ever so slightly begin to burn from the memory. 

He ignored those memories, just like he pointedly did not think about the incident with the chocolate milkshake from yesterday. 

Right now, school was the only thing he wanted to think about. 

\---

**-Ah, the prodigal asshole returns.-**

Izuku didn't reply, instead focusing on the person Venom was talking about. 

Aizawa, their assigned homeroom teacher had seen better days. He hadn't actually seen him since he and Mina had been teleported away, and the sight of the man sharply hammered into him how lucky he was to have a healing factor. 

Unlike Izuku who had pretty much recovered completely from having his chest caved in, Aizawa had(According to Uraraka) had one arm completely broken, the skin on his elbow disintegrated, and his face smashed into concrete, every single injury of which he was heavily bandaged. 

Both of his arms were in slings, though Izuku could tell that the way he moved them as he walked into the classroom was different in each, probably a result of the different kinds of damage he had suffered in each arm. 

His head was so tightly bandaged that the only openings were two slits where his eyes were, and the top of his head where his long black mane flowed down over his bandage covered head. 

Said black mane, also seemed way cleaner and less ragged than Izuku had ever seen it, suggesting someone had cleaned it while he was recovering. 

All in all, he looked like he was about to fall over at any moment, and the way he moved as he walked suggested heavy pain with each step. 

All in all, it made Izuku feel really bad looking at him, knowing he hadn't been strong enough to prevent what had happened to him. 

It was a stupid thought of course, given he had had enough to deal with just surviving against Rhino, but it didn't change how he felt. 

Several of his classmates greeted their sensei with worry, asked him if he was all right. 

Aizawa though didn't seem to be in the mood for such sympathy, given his tone was the same unenthusiastic monotone he almost always used when talking to the class. 

"Don't concern yourself with me…"

He paused before continuing, as he looked out over his class. 

"...After all… The battle hasn't ended for you guys yet…"

Izuku tensed immediately at those words, and he wasn't the only one. Most of the class was immediately at edge, and half of them looked towards the window, as if afraid someone was about to burst in through the glass. 

Behind Izuku, the purple haired Dwarf Mineta, exclaimed in absolute terror "More Villains?". 

Aizawa let the tense situation hang in the air for about 10 seconds before he continued. 

"Yuei's sports festival is approaching Boys and Girls…"

The tenseness burst like a popped balloon. 

Even Izuku partook as everyone suddenly let out a sigh of relief. 

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot this was a school." Kaminari let out while chuckling. 

Shoji, the tallest student in the class, who Venom had once compared to a mixture between Lexington and Kakashi(Whoever they were) raised a hand. 

"Are you sure about this? I mean, right after a villain attack and all?" 

Aizawa did not show any more than his usual enthusiasm as he answered. 

"It's a necessity. To prove that the school's new security measures and protocols are sound… Or that's the thinking anyway."

Izuku could feel a pang of frustration from Aizawa as he talked about the last part. He got the distinct feeling Aizawa might not agree with those who thought like that. 

"In any case, compared to previous events, there will be five times the police presence of previous years, and there will be many times more pro heroes there than usual… And anyhow, our sports festival is still gonna be the best chance any of you guys are gonna get to lay the groundworks for your careers."

Aizawa's eyes suddenly got a narrow look to them as he looked from one end of the room to the other. 

"Anyhow, it isn't an event that can be canceled over a few Villains."

Holy shit. Izuku hadn't even considered the fact the sports festival was coming up. The whole invasion and the aftermath had completely driven it out of his head. 

**"That is all well and good, but we have a question. What the hell is Yuei's sports festival?"**

Izuku hadn't even noticed Venom forming on his shoulder, but once again, he completely froze as everyone's eyes turned towards him, or rather the head of black liquid that was sprouting from his shoulder. 

Aizawa just stared at Venom, seemingly internally debating whether to answer the question, given how you'd have to have lived under a rock not to know about Yuei's sports festival. 

Or on the moon, as was the case here. 

Finally, after a bit of internal debate, he sighed. 

"After the rise of quirks, the old world of professional sports, in particular the Olympics, sharply reduced in popularity. More mundane sports simply don't have the kind of draw that it once had, in this new world of super-powered individuals."

"In the old days, the Olympics would always whip up the entire world, and especially the country hosting them, into a massive frenzy. Today, however, that job generally goes to super-powered contests. And given the only people who are allowed to use their quirks as they see fit are heroes… That generally means school tournaments."

"For Japan, that means that the government sponsors the highest-ranking school in the country, for a 3-day tournament, each day dedicated to one year's set of students. For the moment, that means us here at Yuei. As far as Japan is concerned, this tournament is the replacement for the Olympics of old."

"The pros will be watching us right?" Momo interjected, from two seats behind Izuku. 

"They'll be there as scouts."

"Yeah!" Kaminari replied cheerfully, hands behind his head, in a relaxed pose. 

"They'll be looking to hire us as sidekicks after we graduate after all. That's how it's done!" 

To his side, Jirou, the girl with the long earlobes with horrible sonic powers continued that train of thought. 

"And a lot of those Sidekicks will never manage to go solo. That's you Kaminari."

Kaminari got an annoyed and angry look at that ribbing, but Aizawa interjected before he could reply. 

"All of that is correct. The Yuei sports festival is one of your biggest advantages compared to students from other schools. You'll be putting yourself out there for all the country to see. Every pro worth their salt will be watching the tournament, and yes, they will be scouting for potential sidekicks."

"If you manage to impress them, and make them take you in, you'll have both a good starting position for your careers, and you'll be getting valuable experience. If you manage to get picked up by a really popular hero, the better your springboard will be for when you graduate."

"That said… You have a very limited time here. This event takes place once a year, so you'll get three chances for this. Show the pros what you're made of and make something of yourselves."

\---

The news of the sports festival coming up brought about a level of enthusiasm that Izuku hadn't experienced from the class before. 

As the time for lunch finally came, everyone was chatting, talking, or discussing the upcoming tournament. 

Several of the guys had huddled together to discuss it, Uraraka was putting on a show of kinda scary ambitious sportsmanship, and Tenya was talking about how his brother had performed. 

All of it had made Izuku feel mighty… Uncomfortable? No out of place was probably more like it. 

As the rest of the class chatted, he quietly made his way to a less populated part of the school to eat alone. 

The place he found was by a set of stairs. 

He closed his eyes and tried to calm his mind. It wasn't as easy as it had been yesterday, despite how quiet it was, but after about half a minute, he did manage to clear his kind somewhat, and he once more felt the emotions of everyone around him. 

This time was a bit different than it had been then, in that, with a shock, he realized he recognized several of the flames around him. 

Mina and Tenya had both headed to where he thought the cafeteria was, Iida alone, and Mina alongside a presence he was pretty sure was Tsuyu. 

Mina was cheerful and happy, while Tenya was a weird mix between curious, worried, and nervous. He was far less sure of himself than he had made himself seem. 

Somewhere else in the building, he felt two souls that burned brighter anyone else. Two small burning sun's, that he recognized as Uraraka and All Might. All Might was as deafening in Izuku's emotional sight as he was in person, though for different reasons. 

There were two things that instantly struck Izuku as he felt the two of them. 

The first was that Venom had been utterly, and completely right. All Might was in constant, awful pain. It was horrible, absolutely horrible just how strongly that pain made him burn. 

It made Izuku feel sick, just how much pain he was in. 

The second was that compared to all the other flames Izuku could feel in the dark void, the two flames burned in a way, unlike all the rest. 

It was like… There were several fires, stacked around both of them. Like a ball, with a smaller ball inside of it, with a smaller ball inside of that one and so on. 

If Izuku had had any doubts left that Uraraka wasn't All Might's child, this sight killed them. It was ASTONISHING how similar their souls burned. 

There was one thing however, that shocked him about this sight the closer he observed it. And that was the difference in how bright they burned. 

He initially had thought both burned equally bright. 

He was wrong. 

The reason he had thought that, was due to both of them burning so much brighter than all the rest. 

But to his shock, he realized just how much stronger Uraraka's flame was than All Might's. 

Uraraka's fire burned strong bright, like a small, eternal sun. 

All Might's flame wasn't constant, it was sputtering, like a fire that had to fight against the wind blowing it out. 

The shock broke his concentration, and with a start, he returned to his regular senses. 

For a moment, he just stood there taking deep breaths, before finally fishing out his bag, along with his food for today. 

**"YEESSS…. Finally!"**

Said food was a bag of chocolate nougats. 

Having assured himself that he was alone here, Izuku squatted down and opened the bag. 

He blushed as he took a nougat out, remembering yesterday. 

He'd have to find some better, more sustainable way to enjoy chocolate. He couldn't sneak away every day during lunch to enjoy it. 

For now though… The pull was too strong. He HAD to eat some. He'd already felt the cravings when he hadn't been able to buy some before heading back to school. 

As he bit down, the euphoria shot through him! His brain suddenly became both foggy, yet so much more ALIVE! His whole body felt ALIVE! His tongue most of all, as it savored the glorious, glorious taste in his mouth. 

He was so out of it, that he didn't even notice he had consumed all the bag until he was entirely finished with it, at which point he felt a pang of annoyance. 

Then, deep and utter shame. 

The cravings though had gone away. He felt completely, and utterly satisfied as he went from squatting to sitting down on the stairs.

**"Ahhhh…. That's the stuff! You guys should be happy my kind doesn't know this exists. If they did, they'd launch massive armadas to conquer it's source!"**

"... Good thing they don't then." 

**"Yesss… We'll get it all to ourselves! We love this planet!"**

Izuku just sat there, perfectly content to just sit out the rest of the break. Venom, however, had other ideas. 

**"Now that we have filled up on food… Shall we discuss the tournament?"**

"...Okay? What do you wanna know?" 

**"Well, for starters, we begin with the basics. What the hell are we supposed to do exactly? Aizawa's half-assed explanation only covered the political aspects of the thing. What do we actually compete in?"**

"Oh, okay. Well, two-thirds of the actual exercises change each year. The tournament is divided into three parts, the first generally roots out the majority of participants, and the second removes the wast majority of those remaining. At the end, the part of the show that everyone actually comes to see happens. The fights. All the remaining contestants are set up against each other in a brackets tournament, where you either incapacitate your enemy, or you throw them out of the ring."

**"So it literarily is just a Shonen tournament."**

That… Was kinda a weird way to put it. 

**"In that case, we will have to train then."**

"...I'm pretty sure that's the whole point of going to this school."

Venom snorted.

**"We're talking REAL combat here. Not the kind of sanitized crap your teachers will try and hammer into you. No, what we will teach you, is what we have learned over the course of thousands, upon thousands of hosts."**

Well, that… Didn't sound ominous at all. 

**"Anyhow Izuku… You know how in Video games and anime, the protagonist will spend the vast majority of screentime trying to figure out their ultimate technique, that will define them in battle?"**

"Um… Yeah?" 

**"Well fuck that shit, we'll just teach you the best move we know from the get-go. It's time we really delved into the art of battle, Klyntar style."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be deeply dissapointed with myself if this isnt the shortest chapter in this story.


	18. To The Strongest

It felt weird coming back to one of his old training grounds. 

The forest hadn't changed much since Izuku had last been here, the trees were still the same old immobile greenery they had always been, the small ravine still had the same river, and the broken pieces of logs he had broken so long ago was still lying in it, though now they were rotten and waterlogged. 

No, the main thing that had changed was Izuku. Or rather, the fact that he now wasn't alone. 

During his training, he had learned to associate the forests with quiet and isolation. Sure, Venom had been with him the entire time, but back then, he hadn't talked at all, and Izuku had for the most part just been talking to himself as he tried to communicate. 

Now though, he knew for a fact that no matter what happened, he would never be alone again. 

That was both refreshing, and kinda disturbing in a way that Izuku hadn't truly considered before. 

Today though, they weren't here to simply jump and run around. They were here too, as Venom put it  **"Learn the art of war."** .

After having made certain no other humans were anywhere near them, it was time to begin. 

**"So, the first thing you need to know is a bit about Klyntar Biology. Namely how it changes as we go through our life cycle."**

"You… You mentioned something about that when you were talking with my mom."

**"Indeed. We Klyntar are not like lifeforms based around evolution. We do not age and die from old age. Nor do we die from the lack of nutrition."**

**"If one were to… Say… Imprison one on a moon in the middle of nowhere space for completely unjustified reasons, and leave that poor guy there for millions and millions of years, said Klyntar would never actually die from hunger or old age. There would always be a chance that it would get free, and could recover completely. "**

Izuku very much doubted that whatever it had been that got Venom imprisoned on the moon had been truly unjust. The fact that he had utterly refused to tell him anything about what it was, kinda sold him on that. But he didn't pry either. It was obviously a very sore topic for him, for very obvious reasons. 

**"However, while we do not age, or die from malnutrition, we do have a life cycle before we reach our mature state. We begin our life after spawning as a relatively weak being, not too dissimilar to how we were when the two of us first bonded, just with a much more active mind."**

**"After having bonded to our first host for some time, and having absorbed enough energy, we move on to our… Let's call it the Klyntar equivalent of a teenager. Always running around and causing massive problems for the older generations."**

There was incredible disgust in his voice as he talked about them like they were the bane of everything good in the world. 

**"Anyway, their way of acting isn't important here. You're never gonna meet a Klyntar at this stage of their life. What is important, is how they differ from the next stage of development, the adult one."**

**"At this stage, the Klyntar ability to bond fully to a host isn't nearly as strong and defined as it is for us adults, which also means that they are far less rigid. In other words, their actual strength is Farber below ours, but at the same time they can do things we cannot."**

**"For example, a younger Klyntar can easily create and crystallize a sharp edge from their mass and hold it without any problem. Thus in battle, they tend to favor stabbing and cutting, while we use power-based attacks."**

The image of him forming a giant black katana and cleaving through steel formed inside of Izuku's mind. Then he frowned. 

"Wait… Didn't you say that this Ultimate technique of yours was called the scythe? How can that be when we can't form a sharp blade?" 

**"We'll get to that. Just show some damned patience."**

**"Anyway, this is not the only thing that separates us from juveniles. They also have a much faster time healing injuries to their host, but also Juveniles aren't able to form teeth. Instead, when they form their head, they instead crystallize jagged pieces of their being into a vague proximation of a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth."**

"Okay… That sounds… Even more terrifying than your teeth, but what about it?" 

**"Well, without teeth, they obviously can't form poison inside their non-existent teeth. Originally we thought that was the only thing that their lack of teeth affected. Well, that and not being able to form additional mouths other places on their host body."**

Izuku just sat in silence for a moment, staring in shock before he spoke again. 

"Why… Why would anyone ever want to do that? That's horrifying!" 

**"Oh, don't get your pants in a twist. It's just additional mouths on top of the black suit, not another set from your actual skin."**

Izuku relaxed again, the image of body horror of fangled mouths sprouting from his skin leaving his mind. 

**"As for why, it's pretty good to have if you suddenly get your mouth blocked, and you still need to keep talking."**

**"But back to the scythe. Long, long ago, there was a Klyntar who thought that our ability to form large, white fangs could be used for other things than simply injecting our enemy with poison."**

Down below Izuku's hand, black liquid formed into a long sleek rope of black, then at the end of that rope formed something else, the black taking the form of a long, sleek handle. Then, from the black formed something white, something far more solid than the black mass around it. A long, narrow white tooth, in the form of a scythe blade. 

**"Thus Luxyrr created this."** Venom said with a proud tone in his voice.  **"The scythe. Sure, it might not have the razor edge of the younger bastards, but when we swing this around with the kind of force we pack in our attacks… Well… Try for yourself."**

Izuku stared at the long narrow white blade. 

Then, he tried it out, and with a bit of movement, he realized that the whole thing worked kinda like a whip, extended from his arm, just with a sharp tip. Basically, the weapon was like a morning star. 

As the weapon flew through the air, Izuku realized that the tip didn't move at random, instead the blade would always turn so that the curved tooth would always point towards where he was swinging it. An advantage of having a weapon that was just another part of him. 

He looked around the clearing he was standing in and decided on a massive, thick old tree roughly 9 meters away from him. 

Putting his back into it, he made a sideways sweep into the tree with the intention of putting a hole in it. 

Instead, the scythe-like weapon slammed into the center of the tree, and with a resounding sound of splintering, it punched into the tree, then just kept going, ripping out the part of the tree that kept it from going. 

The end result was that it looked like some big beast had taken a huge bite out of the wood, and with a huge part of the middle of the tree gone, everything above the whole was brought down by gravity. 

Izuku stared in shock.

This… was a bit more destructive than he had thought. 

**"Beautiful isn't it? It's a technique for punching into stone and steel at a range, channeling all of our enormous strength into one breaking point! It's basically like a pickaxe! Sure, it doesn't have an edge, but when using our enormous strength, that doesn't matter! It'll rip the target apart through sheer force!"**

He was right. Izuku knew enough about physics to understand the concept of this attack, and the fact he hadn't even put his full strength behind it and still caused such destruction spoke leagues about how dangerous it was. 

There was just one single problem. 

"Venom… I can't use this in the tournament. At all. If… If I use this against people, they'll die."

**"Oh, in the finals? Oh yeah, you can't use this thing in a non-lethal tournament. This is a technique for war. Still, it never hurts to be prepared."**

He wasn't wrong, but… 

"Do you have any other techniques we can actually use for this battle?" 

**"Well, we were also planning on figuring out exactly what kind of fighting style best mixes with humans and the powers of a Klyntar."**

"Couldn't you… I don't know… Teach me some Alien martial arts?" 

Venom actually cackled in laughter. 

**"Alien martial arts! HAH! Izuku, do you know how many sentient races across the cosmos who has a body structure like humans do?"**

He blinked.

"Um… Some… A lot? Most?" 

**"The answer is bloody few. While yes, two legs, two feet, one head, and no tail is common enough amongst the species of the universe, that is where your similarity to most ends."**

**"The common body structure of most races who walk on two legs is a hunched over posture, more similar to apes than it is to human beings."**

**"In fact, the last time we saw a race with a straight spine was a bunch of 3 meter tall lizard-like people with sharp point bits on their arms, head's and legs. And those fucking morons didn't even have the basic concept of warfare in their skull. They were too stupid to wage war at all."**

"Okay, but… what does that have to do with martial arts?" 

**"Everything. It has everything to do with martial arts. Different races across the cosmos have invented countless martial arts, each of them based on their own body structure, mental way of thinking, and natural limits. Just like humans have."**

**"Let's take the stupid lizards as an example. Let's say they actually invented a martial art. Do you think a race with sharp point bits all over and a tail, would ever invent a martial art that could be used by human beings?"**

When he said it like that, it sounded pretty silly. 

"Probably not" He admitted. 

**"Exactly. You, humans, have this insane idea that most aliens are like yourselves. It is a common trait amongst species that has never gone through first contact. It is also completely wrong. There are no Alien species that are built exactly like your kind."**

**"Point is, that we will have to figure out how to best use your natural build alongside our powers. You seem to have settled nicely into a fighting style relying on jumping around while using our web to pull yourself around. That is not a bad way to fight, but if that is the only way you know how to wage a battle… Well, you remember what happened with Rhino right?"**

He did. He did not fancy being cooked alive by steam again. 

" Yeah… I remember."

**"Let that be a lesson from burned fingers then. Speaking of alternate ways to fight… We don't suppose we are allowed to use any technological inventions of our to fight?"**

Izuku went cold. 

"Not unless we are in the tech department no. Those in the Heroic department don't even get to use their own tailor-made costumes."

Izuku had initially been interested when Venom had told him that he knew how to create many inventions far beyond anything humanity had ever known. Sure, Venom wasn't a scientist, but that didn't matter as much when he had a photographic memory and had lived a long, long life alongside those machines. 

He had actually detailed several blueprints for these things. Then, two hours later, he had ripped the pages with them out of the black book, and thrown them in the toilet. After having ripped them to shreds. 

The world was much, much better off without the things Venom knew how to make. 

**"Pity. This would be so much easier if we could just erase all oxygen in the stadium."**

Case in point. The oxygen destroyer, that did exactly what the name implied. A small baseball-sized sphere that obliterated breathable air around it. Izuku shuddered at the thought of what would happen if that kind of thing ended up in the hand of criminals. 

"Somehow, we'll just have to do without that."

\---

The boulder shattered with a massive "CRASH!", as she put her foot into the kick. 

She panted, completely drenched in sweat. 

The whole area around her was completely destroyed, with uprooted trees, shattered pieces of stone that had been massive boulders, and with pieces of the earth having been split, so that it looked like it had been cut from above by a giant sword. 

Which wasn't that far from what had actually happened. 

Uraraka staggered towards a relatively large rock that had been a boulder taller than she was just a few hours ago, and plopped down on it, completely drained. Her hands in particular were shaking like a small boat in a storm. 

30%. That was how much she could use now. She should feel ecstatic about that. But despite her amazing leap in power over the months, there was another side of that coin, namely that she still had 70% left to go. She wasn't even at the halfway point yet. 

I Am Here. 

All Might's words echoed in her head. 

She had to show the world she was here, that she was ready. She had to win this tournament. She had to. She had willingly signed up for this position, and she would damn well do what she could to live up to it. 

She should have felt confident. She had mastered her powers now. She had even developed a technique of her own, and the days of wrecking her hands were completely behind her. But the fact of the matter was that she didn't feel confident. 

There was a huge Boulder in her way. One that was small, and black, and cute with green hair and adorable freckles. 

Izuku Midoriya had stood out from the rest from the day he had first stepped foot on Yuei. 

He'd saved her life during the entrance exams. Then he had done the best of the entire class during Aizawa's test. Then during Toshinari-san's exercise, he had matched her blow for blow and then defeated her on top of it. 

Then, during the invasion, he had defeated Rhino, a villain she wasn't familiar with, but apparently, he was some big shot guy from America. 

Either way, he was a villain. A real one, unlike the weak guys she had defeated alongside Tsuyu-Chan.

The fact of the matter was that if she had to pick someone she thought would win, it would be Izuku. 

Which would have been perfectly fine if she had just been a spectator. But she wasn't, she was a participant. And if she wanted to win, she had to defeat Izuku Midoriya. 

She had to beat Todoroki Shouto, Mina Hardy-Ashido, Katsuki-Bakugou, and the entire rest of the class as well. All 3 were powerhouses that could not be taken lightly. 

But it was the thought of fighting Izuku that drove her right now. He was the goal she had to surpass if she wanted to triumph in the tournament.

That would have been hard enough on it's own, to just surpass him. The fact of the matter was that she didn't want to fight Izuku. She LIKED Izuku. He was a great friend, and frankly, she didn't want to think about the reaction he would have if she did win against him. 

Would he be crushed? Sad? Not want to be her friend anymore? 

She had made a point to dig around regarding the tournament, and she had learned that Yuei's sports festival had a nasty tendency to break friendships. Especially the first one, where students generally weren't as close as they were after a year together. 

The thoughts of any of her new friends breaking off their friendship with her over being defeated by her was terrifying. She didn't think any of them would, but thinking and knowing were very different things. 

To her side, she heard footsteps and as she turned her head, a towel was offered to her. She took it and began wiping her head. 

"You're kinda terrifying Ochako." Tsuyu said in her general blunt manner. 

She saw the area around her and the sheer destruction she had caused by going all out.

Yeah… She probably was. 

"I don't think Izuku would think so though."

She winced. But it was the truth. 

"Probably not. Anyway, you done with training too Tsuyu?" 

"No. But we can go to my home anyway. I'm sure you want to clean up. And eat with us too. "

Her mouth watered at the thought. God, she had missed real, home-cooked food. It wasn't that she had starved during her muscle training, but she had exclusively consumed only bland, Uber healthy food and drink during that training, and it had lost all flavor for her as the months of training had gone on. 

It had been  **amazingly good** to taste real glorious food again!

As the two went to go pick up Uraraka's bag, they passed the lake Tsuyu used had used for her training over the passing days. 

The frog girl had originally been using a public lake in Mustafa, but after being knocked out on separate occasions by both Kaminari and Jirou(Both of whom had though using their powers to knock out the local fishies had been a good training exercise for control) that had lost a lot of appeal. 

Thankfully for her, Tsuyu had brought the topic up, and since there was a lake on her training grounds, she had offered to let Tsuyu come along to use it. 

The grounds they were on was a relatively large piece of land owned by Toshinori-San, and he had effectively let her use it for training as she saw fit. 

It was amazing that he just owned this huge piece of land, that he'd bought along with some property he had apparently never used. 

Frankly, him just letting her use it was also another lesson in how she wanted to live her life as a hero. She wanted to help people, but to help people on a truly massive scale, you needed money to be able to be generous with more than just a token speech. 

Money made the world go round, and if you wanted to actually do something good on a large scale, you had to have money to burn. 

\---

For those wondering where the hell the scythe originated, it's based on a move from the Spiderman game Web of Shadows. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's always interesting to dig out elements from more obscure sources to use for stories. In this case, a basic move from a forgotten game, that's going to be very important going forward.


	19. Empathy and Understanding

As Mina walked through the cafeteria, she looked around trying to find the guy she wanted to have a chat with.

If she just wanted to eat alongside someone, there were a lot of options, Mina having quickly established herself as one of the people in class almost everyone was friends with. However, she was looking for someone in particular at the moment.

As such, she decided to head over to the table where Tenya sat together with Uraraka and Tsuyu. 

The brown-haired marvel and the frog girl hadn't been an especially close pair at the start of the year, but like a lot of new friend pairs of the class, they had bonded during the invasion. 

There were a lot of those new friend pairs. Momo hadn't exactly been unapproachable, but she hadn't been all that close with anyone either. That had changed now, as she sat together with Jirou, who she had been teleported away together with during the invasion. 

Similarly, Jirou had become friends with Kaminari(Who had also been teleported away together with them), though he was currently together with another one of his friends, Kirishima who was a former classmate of Mina from before Yuei.

He in turn had apparently introduced him to Bakugou, the most antisocial guy in class, who he had been paired with during the invasion.

It was kinda fascinating how friendships formed, not only through the battles themselves but also who the people involved knew from before. 

Bakugou who never would have cared at all for Kaminari apparently tolerated him because of Kirishima. 

Hell, her own friendship with Uraraka(And to a somewhat lesser extent Iida), had become a much stronger part of her regular circle due to their shared friendship with Midori, who had become really close with since the invasion. 

As she sat down on Iida's side, the big dork greeted her in his own, usual manner with his regular, overdramatic arm motions along with his regular way of speaking. 

"Greetings Ashido-San! Do you wish to eat with us?" 

She chuckled. 

"Greetings to you to man."

She nodded to Uraraka and Tsuyu and greeted them in a similar greeting. 

Though they did reply, both their replies were pretty… Listless. 

A lot of the class was very clearly not getting all their necessary beauty sleep due to personal training lately, but nowhere else was that lack anywhere near as bad as it was with these two, Uraraka in particular. 

The normally cheerful and happy girl sat and ate her food just going through the motions, while her eyes fought a constant struggle not to shutter close and have her face plant into the food. 

"Rough night?" She said, more a statement with a sympathetic tone than a question. 

"Yes, it's been quite awful." Tsuyu said in her usual blunt, no sugarcoating manner. 

Uraraka just groaned in agreement. 

Both of them seemed completely down and out of it at the moment. 

Luckily, she had something that should help with that. 

Mina fished out a black thermos from her bag, along with a couple of extra cups she usually carried around just in case. 

After filling the two up with… Well not steaming hot coffee, though not cold sludge either. 

"Here you go! Have some coffee!"

Both of the two girls just stared at it, but both eventually did pick up their cups and drink. In Urarakas case, she downed the whole thing in one go. 

The effect was pretty drastic, as, after about 20 seconds, both of them seemed 5 times more awake than they had just. Uraraka blinking fervently and staring down at the beverage in something akin to awe. 

"Is this actually coffee?" 

Tsuyu cocked her head. 

"Yes, It seems much too strong to be regular coffee."

Mina chuckled, a big grin adorning her lips. 

"Yeah, it's coffee. More specifically, it's Solomons Black Brew, some stuff my mom imports from Africa. She's really fond of the stuff. It's got a bit more kick than regular coffee."

"No kidding." 

Uraraka seemed like she had just become alive, the way she looked like she had just truly realized there was food on her plate. 

"Thanks, Mina you're a lifesaver!"

She then began to devour her meal with far more enthusiasm than before. 

"No problem. I'm happy to help." Then she turned serious. "That said I'm actually looking for Midori. Do you guys know where he is?"

Uraraka, who was in the process of devouring a pike, looked up with surprise, her mouth full of food, but it was Tenya who answered. 

"Midoriya? No, we haven't seen him since class ended."

Of course, they hadn't. 

"Do you think… There's something wrong?" Uraraka asked hesitantly. 

"I mean… He's completely stopped eating with us."

Mina blinked. 

"Completely? Like, he doesn't eat with you at all anymore?" 

"Not since the sports festival announcement…"

It was worse than she thought. She'd noticed Izuku was really out of it lately, and she'd thought it strange she hadn't seen him at lunch, so she'd decided she would seek him out. But to miss lunch entirely? What was he doing? 

"You wish to talk to Midoriya?" A voice from behind her asked in a voice that was quite a bit deeper than it naturally sounded. 

Both Mina and Tenya turned to look who spoke and found Tokoyami, who hadn't actually turned to face them. 

"He was heading up towards the roof the last time I saw him. You may, or may not find him there."

Great! 

"Awesome! Thanks for the help Tokoyami!" 

As she got up from the table, she turned to look at Uraraka. 

"By the way, you still sure you don't wanna train with me Uraraka? Maybe I could help you out with your training?" 

She wasn't entirely sure what she could do to help Uraraka with her crippling lack of rest and her anxieties, but she was sure she could figure something out. 

Uraraka smiled a smile so forced it was almost painful. 

"Thanks for the offer Mina, but… I'm fine. Really."

\---

As the rest of the class headed out to eat, Izuku had headed up to the roof, which was his usual place to enjoy his sinful sugary delights alongside his food. 

Even so, he felt like not even chocolate could wake his spirits at the moment.

He felt drained like he was a towel that had been put through the washer 4 too many times, as all-nighters with Venom became a thing again. 

The fact that he completely forgot to check whether someone was around before he sat down to eat was a pretty good showcase of just how tired he actually was. 

"Heya Midori!"

Izuku completely missed the pink girl until she suddenly plopped down right beside him, completely taking him by surprise, and almost making him fumble his box of chocolates to the ground. 

As he put it down in his bag again(A blush creeping to his cheeks) he turned to face her. 

"H-hey Mina."

A short awkward pause followed his reply as Izuku just stared at her, desperately waiting to see if she would continue with a question, but instead, Mina just sat staring at him in silence with a smile on her face. 

Finally, Izuku gathered the courage to speak. 

"D-did… Did you want something, Mina…?" 

"Well duh, I wouldn't have come here if I didn't. I wanted to check up on you. You haven't been eating with any of us lately, and frankly, you look like a mess, man."

He winced at her bluntness. Still, there was nothing but warmth in her tone. Her expression was equally warm as she looked at him. Then her eyes went down to the chocolate bag. 

"... Have you seriously been running off from eating with everyone else just so you can eat chocolate alone?"

The redness instantly conquered his cheeks. 

"NOO! I just-I… Kinda…"

Why did hanging out with one of his friends so often end with him wanting to die from embarrassment?

Mina chuckled with a grin but patted his back kindly.

"It's okay dude, I won't judge."

Another awkward silence followed before Izuku took a deep breath to calm down. 

"It's… Not the only reason…"

Izuku was still blushing furiously, the box clutched tightly to his chest, but he had stopped shaking as he continued. 

"I... Well… Lately, I've been doing some training for the sports festival, and…" 

"Ohhh! What kind of training?" She interrupted him. 

She beamed at him. 

"Any secret, ultimate moves?" 

"Um… Yeah actually, I have one technique-" "Really? That's Awesome! You gonna be using that as your big move from now on?" 

Izuku bit his lip. 

"It's… Not exactly the kind of move I can use against people…"

"Ahhh." Something seemed to click in Mina's mind. 

"Like my Xeno-acid!" 

"You-Your what?" 

"My strongest acid. Remember I tried using it on Rhino? The green ball that just disintegrated the stone beneath his foot? That's it."

"And you named it… Xeno-Acid?"

"Yeah, you know, after the acid blood of the xenomorphs from Alien and… You've never watched Alien have you?" 

Izuku winced, but she had clearly gleamed the truth from his confused face, so there wasn't really much point denying it. 

"Not… Really."

"Wow. You've really been missing out! Well, we'll have to rectify that! Once the festival's over, you and me are gonna have a movie night with the alien series! The good ones anyway!"

Izuku was about to try making some protest, but it was quickly shut down as Mina's look got kinda serious.

"So, is that why you're depressed? Your ultimate move turning out to be way too awesome to use?" 

"A… Bit I guess. There's… There's some other stuff too…"

Mina, as she was want to do, instantly changed her look from serious, to that of a concerned friend. She was way more expressive than Izuku was. 

She didn't say anything though, letting Izuku take his time. 

"Well… Once I realized the whole ultimate move thing wasn't gonna work out for the tournament… Well, I tried some other stuff… Stuff related to my black Webs."

Mina nodded. 

"And that's going badly?" 

Izuku winced once more. Then, with just one single bit of hesitation, he nodded. 

"Yeah… Like, I can do basic web and lines just fine, but when I try anything advanced stuff without Venom holding my hand… Well… The aim is the least of my problems." 

"I see…" Mina had put her hand up beneath her chin in a classic stereotypical thinking pose.

"Well, I'm not sure how I can help you with that, but if you want, we could train together? I offered to spar some with Uraraka yesterday, to help her out with her issues."

"You… You've been helping out Uraraka-San too with this?" 

"Of course! She's my friend, and it's been clear she's been really stressed lately. Like, even worse than you are."

Then her expression shifted once more, this time to an angry, yet adorable pout. 

"I tried talking with Bakugou too, but he just told me to fuck off! The jerk!" 

Izuku was for one moment pulled between a burst of anger at Katsuki, and a strange urge to just smile at Mina's expression. 

Instead, he considered her offer. 

"Thanks for the offer Mina, but… I think I'd prefer training alone for the tournament." For one thing, he wouldn't look like a complete moron trying to launch small cannonballs from his fists. 

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate Mina's offer. He did, but… Right now he just did not want to train with anyone. He liked being alone, with Just him and Venom to witness his failures. 

Mina looked him over in silence for a moment. 

"It's scary right?" 

"What?" 

"Having to perform in front of thousands of people, for all the world to see. That's what's bothering you isn't it?" 

Izuku just stared at her, then almost resigned, he slumped his shoulders. 

"... Kinda.".

She nodded in an understanding manner. 

"Yeah, I kinda thought it might be something like that. I mean… You're not exactly the most self-assured guy I know."

Putting it mildly. 

"I know several of the rest of the class are pretty scared about it too. It's kinda silly, to be scared of performing in front of others when you've proven you're able to do or die, but I guess it's just the way it is."

Izuku was well aware of just how silly it might be.

It didn't change how he felt about it. 

"Are… Are you afraid?" 

"Nope."

The certainty in her voice was surprising, though Izuku wasn't all that surprised. Mina didn't really seem like the kind of person who crumbled under pressure. 

"I mean, I guess I'm a bit afraid of screwing up and looking like an idiot on national TV, but I'm not worried about the festival in itself. It's just a sports tournament. We're not gonna die if we don't do well in it."

That… Was kinda a different way of looking at it. 

"... So you're not worried about losing?"

"Of course I am! I'm planning to win the tournament after all. Like, why would you bother participating if you weren't gonna give it your all?"

"But If I lose… Well… It's not the end of the world. It's just a competition after all. I mean, mom never won any contests, and she did great for herself."

Izuku had gotten the impression from Uraraka that All Might's daughter was kind struggling to live up to the great image of All Might. That she was kinda being crushed under the expectations of her inherited legacy. 

He had, somewhat erroneously it seemed, thought Mina might be feeling similar pressure. If so, she didn't show any of it. 

Black Cat's legacy seemed to be a great strength for Mina to draw upon. It made perfect sense of course. It was just a concept so removed from Izuku's world. Izuku had gotten many good things from his parents, but a legacy to take great pride in as a source of strength for his hero career wasn't one of them. 

His mom had until recently been a failed lawyer, and his dad a common salaryman. It was quite a humble origins. 

Not quite like Black Cat.

She'd been a great hero before she even came to Japan. 

"So, what about you Midori?" Mina looked at him with those Black and golden eyes, filled with concern. 

"You worried about the contest itself?" 

"...Yeah."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"Not really…"

Mina continued looking at him like she was internally debating whether to push further or not. In the end, she sighed, then stood up while stretching her arms over her head. 

"Well, I can't force you, but if you wanna talk about it, I'm here. Also-" She nodded at the box. "Not gonna tattle on you about your secret forbidden delights or anything, but if you plan on eating alone from now on, you should tell Tenya and Uraraka about it. They've been really worried about where you've been running off to."

Then she gave a cheery wave as she walked off towards the exit. 

"See Ya later Midori!" 

"... Later."

As she left, Izuku just looked after her, thinking about what they had just talked about. 

It wasn't anything Venom hadn't talked with him about before, but somehow it was different to chat about it with someone who wasn't trying to push him about it.

Still, what was there to say? That he was terrified of losing because he felt like it would prove he hadn't changed at all from who he used to be? That'd require him to explain that he had been a complete failure not too long ago. 

He didn't want to talk about that. He didn't want to talk about those days. As far as he was concerned, he wanted to pretend who he was had begun on that day on the junk-filled beach so long ago now that it felt like another lifetime ago. 

Mina, Uraraka, Tenya, his entire class. None of them knew who he had been. The only one who did was Bakugou, and he couldn't do anything about him. But the rest…

The rest of them didn't need to know about Izuku the useless, Quirkless weakling. The only Izuku they needed to know was the one he was now. The shy guy who was occasionally an idiot, but had the strength to actually do something in the world. 

Although… He really should have told Tenya and Uraraka about these running offs of his. Mina was right. They were probably worried about him. 

Frankly, he had to find some other time to eat this part of his daily meals… For as long as it went. He had kinda been pushing his cash reserves to the limit of chocolates. They'd run dry soon. 

God, spending all his pocket change on chocolate…

Venom finally decided to appear on his shoulder. 

**"The Alien mythos eh? That's gonna be fun."**

Izuku, who hadn't really been thinking about Mina's promise about movies, and who knew absolutely nothing about the ancient film franchise other than a vague idea of them being about some black alien creature, was surprised with the really approving way he said that. 

"So they're… Good movies then?" 

**"Exceedingly so. Great atmosphere, thrills, and especially good, realistic architecture. But the real fun will be watching you react to them. Yes, that will be hilarious."**

Izuku just stared at him for a second, before it clicked. Then dread clenched in his gut. 

"...They're horror movies aren't they?". 

\---

After his talk with Mina, and deciding to go apologies to Uraraka and Tenya for ditching them during Lunch(Along with promising he'd eat lunch with them regularly from now on) Izuku had thought that would have been the end of the day's surprises. 

The sight outside their classroom as classes ended that day(10 Minutes later than usual due to some extra lectures from Aizawa.) dispelled that notion.

The corridor was packed, absolutely packed with students from other classes. Not just 1-B, which was the only other heroics class, but also from the general and the tech classes too. 

The students who had come all had different looks. Some looked curious, some annoyed, some eager, and others just looked downright hostile. 

There were murmurings on both sides, both from Izuku's classmates and from the students who had come to gawk. 

But it was the dwarf Mineta who finally asked the big question. 

"Why are these guys here crowding the exit? Who are they?"

The one who answered, surprisingly enough, was Katsuki Bakugou, with a voice that was much more calm and subdued, if no less hostile, than usual. 

"They're scoping out the competition you retard. They wanna see the gang who made it through the villain ambush, so they've come to check us out before the big battle, asshole."

He walked up to right before the gathered students, before continuing. 

"It's pointless to try though, so why don't you just fuck off you goddamn extras."

Izuku wasn't surprised by Katsuki's words of choice. What he was surprised by was just how burning the anger that welled up inside of him was at those words. It burned like searing coals to see him treat others like how he had once treated him. And he was about to voice his opinion on that when Iida did it for him.

"Don't go calling people you don't know extras!" 

Yeah, that was how he had always been. He didn't believe that other people had feelings, lives, or anything else that mattered in the world. Sociopathic git. 

"I came to see what you kids are made of, but I didn't think you'd be this arrogant. Are all the kids enrolled in the departments of heroics this way?" 

The voice was a new one, a more weary one than anyone from their class. 

The crowd in front of Katsuki parted to let said speaker step forward.

The speaker in question was a boy who kinda looked like a mixture between Aizawa and Izuku, with a massive, poofy unruly Mane of hair not too unlike Izuku's(Though his was purple) while his face had the same kind of completely drained bags under his eyes like Aizawa always had. 

His expression was a neutral one, but… Izuku could feel… Bitterness emanating from him. Immense bitterness. Izuku also couldn't help but notice that the kids around the newcomer all seemed afraid of him, backing away to give him space. 

"Gotta say, I'm a bit disillusioned. That's it huh?" 

The boy let the silence hang for a moment, just broken by Katsuki's growls before he continued. 

"There's lots of kids who end up in the general education departments or tech because they failed the exam for Heroics. Did you know that?" 

**"No."** Venom suddenly popped out from Izuku's shoulder. **"But so what?"**

The purple-haired boy took a moment to take in the look of the alien, seemingly nonplussed by his sudden appearance before he continued. 

"Based on the result of the sports festival, it's possible for students to be reviewed for a possible transfer to heroics. The reverse is also a possible outcome." 

Venom snorted. 

**"As if. Aizawa isn't the kind who would be satisfied with just a transfer for underperforming students. If any of us underperforms in the festival, he'd just expel us."**

A short pause followed that. 

The purple kid scratched his neck, then continued. 

"Well, I'm just here scoping out the competition. If nothing else, a general kid like me is thinking… Why don't I try pulling the rugs out from under the heroics kids, when they're on their high horses? You guys can consider this a declaration of war."

**"Yeah, well that is all well and good, and fascinating and all…"** Venom said in a very dry tone.  **"But it would have been a lot more effective if you hadn't just admitted beforehand that you weren't strong enough to make it into the department that actually matters."**

It was amazing how Venom had a tendency to make himself, and by extension Izuku, into the target of attention of everyone around them. In this case, every single one of the students looked at the two of them with angry, narrowed eyes. 

Of course. 

Izuku swallowed, not really sure what to say. 

He was spared that by another voice suddenly joining the discussion. 

Namely, a guy Izuku had seen a lot before, but never really talked with before, that was literarily made of a Grey metal. 

"HEY, YOU! I'M FROM CLASS 1-B!"

At the very least, his loud outburst, and upraised hand, made people stop glowering at Izuku, and turn towards him instead. 

"I HEARD YOU GUYS KNOCKED AROUND A BUNCH OF VILLAINS, SO I CAME TO HEAR IT DIRECT! BUT I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT FROM SOME SNOT NOSED PUNK OR A PIECE OF GOO!" 

Venom responded to that by baring his teeth at him for that comment. 

"BUT WHATEVER, JUST DONT GO EMBARRASSING US DURING THE MAIN EVENT YOU HEAR?" 

Then, as suddenly as he had entered the conversation he just left. 

An awkward silence arose, before Bakugou decided to just begin to leave through the crowd, but was interrupted by Kirishima. 

"WHY did you do that? Now we're gonna have haters all up in our grill throughout the entire festival!" 

"It doesn't matter." Bakugou simply said in response. 

"WHAT?"

"None of that matters once you're at the top." Then he left. 

Izuku just stared after him. Around him, his classmates began debating the words Katsuki had just said. Some, like Kirishima, was impressed, while others like Kaminari was quite less so. 

Him, he had finally  **understood** .

None of that matters once you're at the top.

It was amazing how in one single sentence, Bakugou had finally made Izuku fully understand him and the way he thought. 

Katsuki justified every single misdeed he had ever done, as unimportant, so long as he reached the top. Because what did hurting other people matter, compared to the idea of Bakugou standing at the top?

He glanced over at Uraraka, who stood at his side looking worriedly after Bakugou. 

It was amazing. How these two had basically the same goal, but in every single way they were such opposites. 

The goal of becoming number one didn't matter Izuku realized. Only the motivation for becoming so. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wish there was a chapter between this one and the previous one, as i kinda feel a lot of stuff brought up in this chapter really needed another previous chapter to gel. However, i simply couldnt make it work, so it is what it is.


	20. Moments in Time

The day of the sports festival came so suddenly upon them, that for Izuku, it felt like someone had just nailed him in the back of the head with an unexpected brick. 

Of course, maybe it was just the mixed results of his two weeks of training. He probably would have felt so much more confident and ready if he had been able to master most of what Venom had tried to teach him. 

He had not. He had managed the Scythe just fine, and he had become pretty decent at using webbing as a whip or rope. But that was about it. 

He hadn't managed to master more advanced webbing techniques like the kind Venom had used to encase Shocker during the invasion. Not without Venom providing the groundwork and aim. 

Which wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it meant he needed to set it up, rather than being able to just do it on the fly. Not to mention that he needed to tell Venom to do it, which just wasn't a realistic option on a chaotic battlefield, where 5 seconds could make the difference between life and death. 

Not to mention stealth, which would be broken by one of them suddenly beginning to talk to lay out a plan. 

At least he'd become much better at aiming his ranged attacks, but that didn't help him when the balls of black goo he fired just splattered into harmless liquid instead of encasing his targets, or as was the case with the really advanced stuff, become hard enough to act as actual physical projectiles. 

He was still trying to get a grip on that when he realized it was just one more day of training before the sports festival. 

The two weeks were over and seemed to have disappeared in a flash. 

And now, there was nothing to do but try and relax before the morrow, when he'd have to try and put what he could do to the test. 

\---

It was a regular night at the Midoriyas.

Inko was reading through some stacks of paper from work, doubtless related to a case of some kind, Izuku was writing down the experiences of his training in full in his black book, and going over what he had done before, seeing if there might have been something he might have missed, and finally, Venom sat at the TV watching some anime from a century back, about a delinquent girl. 

It was all perfectly normal, a random moment in time, that could have been used to describe this household's regular days for the last months. 

Then, as she was reading through yet another page, Inko's phone rang. 

Neither Izuku nor Venom turned to look, nor did they pay attention to the words she spoke, each focused on their own things. 

Thus Izuku didn't see the joyous, pure smile that sprouted on his mom's face, nor did he pay attention as she headed out, simply assuming she was getting up to head to the bathroom. 

Izuku didn't realize his mother had gone out before roughly half an hour later when he looked up to see that she had closed her laptop and put away all her papers. So consumed about his own limits and shortcomings was he at that moment, while dreading the coming day. 

Though he didn't know it at the time, his world had just reached a turning point. One far more important to Izuku's life, than the tournament that had consumed all of his attention at the moment. 

All thanks to a phone call on a random night, that he had paid no attention to. Such was the way of things. 

\---

The school entrance was packed by reporters and camera crews as he walked to the regular opening in the wall. 

It wasn't the first time they had had to deal with nosy reporters around the school(There had been a lot who just wanted to ask about All Might), but Izuku could generally just avoid them all together thanks to Venom and his ability to pick them out without getting close, but the sheer amount of them today really made all the difference. 

As did their behavior. Usually, these people would be shoving their mics up in the students' faces, and peppering them with questions, without any sense of personal space. 

Not today though, as they let the students pass in complete peace, and not one question was fired over the temporary portable fence separating them from the students. 

Presumably, they didn't want to risk getting booted out from the event altogether, by harassing the students. Not with the security being much stricter and harsher than usual due to the invasion. 

Well, that and the heroes standing by the entrance. 

The heroes in question were a couple of women Izuku didn't know, but the black cat-shaped badges on the front of their outfits, along with some high-tech looking vambraces told him they were part of Black Cat's Agency. 

The hero on the left wore an outfit that kinda reminded him of the one Jirou wore, in that, I was basically just a regular set of clothing, composed of a black jacket, a t-shirt, a set of pants, gloves, and boots. 

Where it differed from Jiro was in composition, as the loose black coat she wore was longer, going down around her waist, as well as being trimmed with white fur. The t-shirt was also different, being white, and in perfect shape, unlike Jirou's intentionally ripped red punker shirt. 

Her pants were pretty much the same look as Jirou's, but her gloves and boots weren't much alike at all, both being military-styled. In the case of the gloves, they were connected to a set of techno vambraces. 

The clothing, however, was where the similarities to Jirou ended. The woman in question had shoulder-length spiky hair, with bangs in front, covering a womanly, face with an expression of shyness and nervousness, that couldn't have been more unlike the confident tomboy Jirou's if she tried. 

Her body structure was also completely different, whereas Jirou was only 5 feet tall, this woman was a giant, towering over most people, standing maybe 2 meters tall, with a truly massive bust. 

On the opposite end was the Hero to the right. 

Just as tall, also with an outfit of regular clothing put together into a hero outfit, she might have appeared similar to her counterpart, but she most certainly did not.

If her counterpart was dressed in somewhat regular, if unusual clothing for her outfit, this woman was dressed in fully standard clothing. 

On top she wore an open in the front green jacket, with rolled-up sleeves, showcasing both a set of high-tech vambraces, as well as a set of arms just as muscular as Uraraka's were. 

Under said jacket she wore a black buttoned-up shirt, with the top buttons open, doing a good job showcasing the cleavage of a bust even larger than her counterpart. 

Lower down she wore a short green skirt, over a set of black, skin tight knee-high socks, over a set of legs just as powerfully built as her arms were. 

Below she wore a set of green sneakers of the same style and brand as the kind Izuku liked to wear. 

Her hair was long, black, silky smooth, and went down her back, all the way to her waist. 

Her face was rather sharp, with a strong jaw, and narrow blue eyes. Not a hint of cosmetics, whether it be lipstick or mascara was to see on it. Instead, she wore a confident, dangerous grin. 

Normally, the sight of this woman would probably have made Izuku flustered as he walked by, but it did not. Instead, like the reporters, he was struck by the Aura she exuded. 

For one thing, it instantly reminded him about Katsuki in his more dangerous moments, only instead of that seething anger being directed at him, it was instead being directed at the poor reporters, as if daring them to step out of line. 

That Aura was only enhanced by the final effect of her personage, a long, thick metal bat slung over her shoulder. 

Though the bat was perfectly clean and didn't look out of the ordinary from any other, grey metal bats, there was something about it that sent shivers down Izuku's spine. 

As he approached, both women turned to look at him, the woman with the bat changing expressions to a more jovial smile, as she lifted up her phone. 

"Name and class?" 

"Izuku… Midoriya Izuku, class 1-A…"

"Oh, so you're Midori eh?" 

The older woman looked him up and down with an inquisitive look, while seemingly comparing him with something on her phone. 

"Man, you're plain. The way Mina talked about you, I expected you to be an adorable Kitten, not-."

Izuku could feel the redness build up over his cheeks, but thankfully he was saved by the other hero. 

"Don't bully him, sis. Midori-Kun, just go inside and to the regular bus spot okay? You'll go along with the rest of your class from there."

He nodded, and without a word, he passed through the gate to the school.

As he walked he saw a dozen more pro-heroes patrolling the school grounds. Many he recognized, but many more he didn't. 

He almost stumbled over his own feet when he suddenly recognized Edgeshot, the number 5 Hero of Japan. 

"Holy crap it's Edgeshot…"

**"...Are you seriously going to act like this every single time we meet a top hero?"**

He didn't answer, instead covering his mouth, while squeeing at the sight of the Ninja clad hero. 

After a bit of silence, Venom continued with a question. 

**"So… That's Edgeshot right? Number 5?"**

"Yeah… He's only under All Might, Endeavor, Hawks and Best Jeanist in rank."

**"... We're gonna ignore that there is a hero called Best Jeanist. So you wish to study under Edgeshot?"**

The question took Izuku completely off guard. 

"What?" 

**"We asked if you wanna become his apprentice? That is why we're doing this right? We fight to impress the tops, to become their interns so that we can utilize this connection to get ahead in the world?"**

Truth be told, Izuku hadn't actually considered that part of the tournament. 

He had been way too focused on not making a fool of himself, to focus on the fact that the reason he was substantially here, was to impress the pro heroes. 

Instantly, the joy of seeing the pros all around him turned to dust in his gut. 

Venom was right. 

They were here to impress these heroes, in the hope that one of them would take them on as an intern. If they couldn't… Wouldn't that make this… All a giant waste of time? 

In that case though…. Was Edgeshot a hero he should be aiming for? 

"... I… I don't Edgeshot would be a good hero to train under for us."

**"Oh? Something wrong with him?"**

"No, he's an amazing hero. It's just… His powers and fighting style isn't anything like us. In terms of our own personal powers… Well… Realistically speaking, there isn't much we can learn from him."

**"We see… Sooo… Who would serve us better to learn from then?"**

Izuku knew the answer. There were two heroes that would fit the bill better than any other, but as the answer was about to leave his tongue, he was interrupted by a loud voice from behind. 

That, someone, turned out to be Iida, who quickly made the regular morning greetings, and began inquiring about how he felt. 

After that, they were quickly swept up by the rest of the class on their way to the bus. 

\---

Izuku had hoped that once they finally got to the stadium the sports festival was held in, his nerves would hopefully become less dire. 

Instead, the opposite happened, and as he stood near the corner, his back against the wall, all he could do was stare at the clock up on the wall, ticking, and ticking away until the moment of doom. 

It was ridiculous. Insane. He had gone into life threatening situations, and he had handled them relatively well, without being paralyzed by fear. 

So, why… Why did that looking at the clock up on the wall, suddenly make him feel like he was back a year ago?

Logically speaking, Mina was right. He shouldn't be feeling like this. But he was. 

Somehow, now that this whole tournament was about to happen, he felt a fear of going out there for the world to see. A fear the likes of which he hadn't felt since the entrance exam when he had faced the giant zero-point robot. 

He feared going out there. 

He recognized this feeling. It was a feeling he had suffered many, many times in his life. 

The fear of standing up, and saying something he thought because he had had it beaten into him what happened if he did. 

He had hoped, no, believed so strongly, that he had left this part of him behind the day he bonded with Venom. 

But he hadn't. 

He just hadn't been in a position where these old feelings were put to the forefront. Back during his last year of middle school, he had kept a low profile, because he had realized that he didn't care about what the people of his class thought of him anymore. He had no good memories from his old class, and subsequently, had lost any interest in impressing them. 

That was not the case here. He DID care what the rest of the class thought of him. He did care what his teachers thought of him. He did care what the pro heroes watching it all thought of him. He cared what the crowd thought of him. 

He feared, irrationally, that if he made a fool out of himself now, it would cause everyone to turn on him. It was insane. Ridiculous. But at that moment, he just couldn't kill that feeling in the back of his head. 

What he was afraid of, more than anything, was being judged. Judged by his friends, his teachers, his class, the public, pro heroes. 

He feared the crowd. He feared being singled out. He feared being weak. He feared being Deku. 

And so, as the class was talking amongst themselves, he just stood and stared at the clock, awaiting the moment of doom. 

He might have stared at it all the way until the end, but a conversation suddenly cut through all the talk and silenced everyone else. 

Izuku didn't catch the first part of the talk, but he did turn his head and look over at the speaker, who turned out to Todoroki Shoto. The person he was speaking to was Uraraka, who seemed to have been caught on the spot, judging by her confused expression. 

"-Stronger than you, more skilled. More capable."

"Um, What?"

"All Might has got his eye on you hasn't he Uraraka?" 

It was those words, more than any other that actually managed to wake Izuku's attention. It would seem he wasn't the only one who had put some pieces together. 

Like at that lunch that seemed so long ago now, Uraraka's expression became both tense, surprised, and weary at that declaration of connection to All Might. 

Todoroki however, seemed uninterested in pushing deeper into that mystery. 

"I don't really have any interest in prying deeper into WHY that is, but… I WILL beat you today."

A declaration of challenge. 

It got varied responses from the rest of the class. 

Some surprise, some comments, but the only one who wanted to play peacemaker was Kirishima. 

"Seriously man? Picking a fight now, when we're just about to-" "I don't really care what you think about it." Todoroki interrupted him.

"I'm not here to make friends. Nor will I pretend to be one to anyone here either."

He kept looking at Uraraka with a stoic glare. 

The brown-haired girl stared at him for a moment, then fidgeted with her hands a bit, before she finally looked him in the eyes and answered. 

"I… I'm not really sure why you decided to challenge me specifically. If you wanted to make a declaration to the strongest person here, that would be Izuku, not me."

A short silence followed, as once again, everyone turned to look at Izuku. This time though, he didn't care. 

He just stared at the Uraraka's back, at her long, brown hair that went down over her gym uniform like a lion's mane. 

"He's the strongest, and most capable fighter here, by a wide margin. I'm not blind enough to pretend otherwise. You're strong too. Not as strong as Izuku, but you're still a powerhouse. So are Mina and Bakugou."

She turned her head to look out over the class, and Izuku could see her left eye, and he saw it was glowing faintly, with a pink glow.

"This class... Is full of strong people. Not just us at the top."

She turned her head back to look Todoroki in the eyes again. 

"BUT even so… I don't plan on losing to either him or  **you** or  _ anyone  _ else either!"

For just a brief moment Izuku caught the glimpse of a bolt of pink energy dancing around Uraraka's fingers. Then it vanished, as she continued. 

"I'm going all the way to the top. I don't plan on losing to anyone today. No matter how strong they are."

"Right…"

Izuku kept staring at her, her words echoing in his mind. 

He recognized the feeling. It was the same he had felt in the forest. It was the feeling he had felt back when Stick-San had told him could become a hero. It was the feeling of knowing that somebody believed in him. That someone he respected, had an unwavering belief in him and what he could do. 

It was an incredible feeling. 

The fear of the crowd didn't vanish. But it did lessen substantially. 

**-Goddamn, you still are way too easy to influence with the smallest words.-**

"That's not a bad thing." He muttered as everyone who had still been sitting got on their feet as Iida came to announce it was time to go. 

As they walked out into the sunlight, Izuku finally realized something. 

He didn't fear losing Uraraka's respect anymore. Instead, he wanted to prove himself worthy of it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not too happy with this chapter. Though I feel I did a good job beginning the work for how Uraraka isn't just Izuku with an extra ability tacked on. She has her own motivation, personality, and way of doing things.


	21. 21th Century Octopus Girl

Inko Midoriya groaned. The older woman was clutching her head, where a truly astounding hangover was beating her brain senseless. 

There wasn't really much to do about that right now though, other than drinking more water. She had gone through two cauldrons of miso soup and drank through 3 full bottles of water so far this morning, and the pain was still there. Thankfully David was kind enough to hand her a bottle he had filled from the spring without any prompting. 

"Thanks."

"No problem." The American chuckled and popped open one of his own drink for today, a soda. 

She knew he would much rather have preferred some German beer, but alas, such was the price of having to ferry around people in cars. 

God knows she wasn't in form to drive at the moment. Not with this insane pain in her skull. 

It had been quite some time since Inko had just gone to town with her gal pals and drunk herself into oblivion. 

Not since her college days, so, so long ago now. 

Still, there were times when celebrating was in order, and the news she had gotten last night certainly was one such occasion. That said, it had also meant she'd had to ask David to both pick her and her girlfriends up after the partying, and to drive her home, and to drive her baby to school the day after. 

He had done so with no complaints. The man had always been a dear, in all the years Inko knew him. Of course, if he wasn't, he never would have crossed the pond with Hisashi and left their old… Unsavory lives behind. 

After driving Izuku, he'd headed over to their home to watch the sports festival together with her. 

It was weird. She and Izuku had always had a tradition of watching the sports festival together each year. 

It had always brought a smile to his face to watch them, and in turn, she had always been so happy every time he smiled at seeing the competition between superpowered teenagers. 

It had always been a strictly family affair. Now she was watching it with an old friend instead. It felt weird. Awkward. 

What felt even more awkward was seeing her baby on TV alongside all the rest. He stood like a black blotch of paint in a sky compared to the rest, given he wore a gym uniform that had been dyed black by the alien. 

The camera crews didn't focus much on him, but she still didn't have much problem picking up the look of awkward determination on his adorable, precious face. It reminded her of nothing as much as when Hisashi was about to meet her parents for the first time. 

"Seems they're finally starting." David noted, in a tone that screamed "Get on with it already.".

"Oh, they still have the Athlete's Oath first."

"... And that is?" 

Oh right, he wasn't Japanese. They didn't have these kinds of things in America. Either that, or he hadn't seen a school tournament before. 

"It's a… Hnng… Ceremonial thing. They have a student representative say a short speech before the event officially starts."

The student in question was Uraraka Ochako, one of Izuku's closer friends. She didn't really know much about her beyond the name, but she seemed a nice enough girl. About the only thing that had made her do a double-take was her arms, which she had rolled up enough that both arms were mostly visible, and it was easy to see that Uraraka had been hitting the gym a lot in recent times. 

"So, that's the powerhouse eh?" 

"That's what Izuku says anyway."

"Man, she's RIPPED." 

David scratched his chin in contemplation. 

"You said the pink girl was also Izuku's friend?" 

"Ashido-san? Yeah, she is." 

"And she's also pretty well built… Think he might have a type?" 

Inko stared at him with a blank look on her face, before blood flushed to her cheeks. 

"Y-Y-You think he-My baby has-Oh my God does he?" 

She hadn't even considered that! Did her son have a type? Strong, powerful women? Oh God, she'd never even considered that! As she flushed, a bolt of pain burst through her skull, making her flinch. 

David laughed. 

"Eh, who knows. Guess we'll have to wait and see."

An awkward pause followed as Inko had her face buried in her hands, watching Izuku's friend through her fingers. 

When Adam said something again, it was with quite a bit more serious tone than before.

"So, any plans for when you'll tell Izuku? He should know. Hisashi is his dad after all." 

"I… We were planning on waiting until summer. It's still months away yet before it happens in any case."

"We. So you've talked with Hisashi about it then?" 

"Of course I have! It's just that… Well, I don't really wanna tell him, then have something happen and the whole thing collapses one month from now."

She had had that happened before. 

They had made plans, then the whims of fate had thrown all their plans to the winds.

Such was the way of things when you were poor, and unimportant in society. One single catastrophe could upend everything, and you had to remake your entire life in the wake of it. 

\---

Uraraka's speech as the school's representative for this year was kinda lackluster, but it could have been so much worse. 

A shiver went down his spine as Izuku wondered how he'd have done if he had been the one who had been chosen to hold an impromptu speech. 

Probably just stood there in complete frozen silence most likely. 

The moment she was done, the teacher overseeing the festival this year immediately took charge again. 

The teacher in question was their modern Arts teacher Kayama Nemuri, better known by her hero name Midnight. 

Of all the teachers of Yuei, she was probably the most Infamous, having single-handedly made the government change regulations about how much material a costume had to cover for any hero who didn't have a quirk that made the regulation impossible to work with. 

The reason for this had been her original costume, which had literally just been a coat, a thick belt to hide her nether, and a two-pouch bandolier covering her breasts, alongside boots, gloves, glasses, and a choker. 

It had probably been the most scandalous outfit ever actually used by a hero in Japan and had led to the government clamping down on the previously very loose costume regulation. 

Nowadays, you needed to be someone like Hagakure to be allowed to wear such a revealing outfit. 

Not that Midnight's current costume was much better. In fact, it was just as scandalous, though it did follow the new rules. 

More to the point, under a very scandalous leotard/corset, she wore a thin, skin-colored piece of fabric, that essentially made her look completely naked, except it didn't show her nipples. 

All in all, Izuku couldn't imagine anyone who embodied the epithet "The R-Rated Hero" better than Midnight did. She was an exhibitionist to her core, and beyond that, she was probably the most energetic of Yuei's staff, only behind Present Mic. 

Practically the moment Uraraka was finished with her speech and stepping down from the podium, she began explaining the first event with a crack of a short, multi-tailed whip to punctuate that it was now time to listen. 

"NOW THEN, WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY! LET'S! GET! THIS! STARTED!!!" 

Behind her, a massive holographic screen popped up. 

"THESE ARE THE QUALIFIERS! IT'S AT THIS STAGE THAT SO MANY YOUNG, DEFENCELESS, HELPLESS STUDENTS ARE SENT HOME CRYING EVERY YEAR! AND THE FATEFUL FIRST OF EVENT OF THIS YEAR IS…. THIS!!!" 

With another snap of the whip, she motioned towards the hologram, where words now appeared. 

Namely, the words "Obstacle Course."

**-Oh so just a race then. Great, we should dominate this, no problem.-**

Mina, who stood at Izuku's side, evidently felt the same. 

"A race! Sweet! We'll dominate this so hard, right Midori?" 

"Ye-Yeah."

They weren't wrong. A race really would be like it tailor to him most of all. As far as he knew, none of the class could fly. But he could jump over 50 meters no problem. And not at small speeds either. 

Whatever obstacles there would be, he could simply soar above them. 

He could do this. 

"This race will be between all 11 of Yuei's classes."

As Midnight kept talking, the wall in front of them began to mechanically fold themselves to the sides, revealing a relatively narrow corridor.

"The race itself will be 4 kilometers long, and also…"

Her face suddenly got an expression of pure sadistic glee, that did not belong on a teacher of children. 

"Our school preaches freedom in all things, sooo…. Everything is fair game, so long as you don't go of course! Now get into position."

As they got into positions(which was a fancy way of saying a huge crowded cluster of people), Venom decided to pop in with some commentary of his own. 

**-You know, it's been a while since we meet a school teacher who encourages students to randomly attack each other with a sadistic grin on their face.-**

Izuku ignored him, and instead focused on the upcoming race start. 

Which was signaled by three lights over the corridor they were to enter. 

The first one to the right flashed red. Izuku tensed, but almost immediately, the next one flashed after it, and then, before he was ready, the third one flashed, and with a ding sound, along with a massive shout of "STAAARRTTT!" from Midnight, the race was on. 

…And Immediately, The pressure of almost a hundred students trying to cram themselves into a corridor made itself known, as everyone tried to force their way in at once. The lucky ones were in the front, and unless they were overtaken by those behind, they shouldn't have any problems keeping their lead. 

Not that Izuku had any plans of going through the mass of people. On the contrary, he let the mass move past him so he stood behind them, giving him more space to move. 

He had not practiced wall-running, which was an obvious mistake on his part. He would have to rectify that later. 

However, he had practiced another, more situational move, actually designed for flinging himself through the open air. 

With a quick bit of aiming, two lines of black slammed themselves onto the sides of the corridor, a bit over the heads of any students. 

Izuku quickly began walking backward, and quickly the webs tightened, as tension began to build like the rope of a catapult. Which incidentally was what Venom had called this move. 

You webbed yourself to a solid source, then forced tension and weight into the webs by moving backward, then once the tension had built up, you simply cut it by releasing the stickiness to the ground, and you would be flung like a Boulder from a catapult. 

Easy, simple, and not too hard to use. 

It was a move that would easily have let Izuku soar above the entire rest of the students of their year, and net him the number one spot with a wide margin, despite the time needed to set up. 

Alas, the moment he let go and was beginning to be flung through the air, a mechanical tendril, shot up from the crowd, and sliced through one of his webs with a blade. 

And thus, rather than flying triumphantly through the air, he instead was sent flying off course and slammed into the wall inside the corridor, then bounced off it and kept going. 

The force was still easily enough to fling him through the corridor, and over the mass of students though. 

Izuku slammed hard into the ground with such force that he made the ground, which for some reason had been frozen, crack and splinter, as he bounced off it and kept going. 

It was rather lucky he didn't hit any of his fellow students, because if he had, the speed and force he flew at would probably have broken their necks. 

As it was, Izuku finally stopped maybe 20 meters from the exit. 

He groaned, and began to stagger himself to his feet, feeling the pain of the impacts upon his body. It wasn't nearly as bad as being hit by Uraraka or Rhino, but it still hurt a lot. 

It wasn't before he realised that people were actually running past him, that reality hit him again. 

He was still in a race. Idiot. Moron, stupid boy, get moving! 

He snapped around, and there, in front of him, he saw several students all running. In lead was Todoroki, who seemed to freeze the ground behind him, making it a pain to run for those who followed him. 

Well. He wasn't planning on running. 

Not for long anyway. 

He began to run, to build up speed. 

Unlike his fellow students, he had no problems running on ice, Venom's black mass keeping him anchored to the ground. 

He bent down, preparing to jump. 

Then he soared. 

He took over the lead almost instantly, with the speed he flew dwarfing anyone else. 

In that moment, peace came to his mind. It was just him and the sky, nothing else. Not crowds, not cameras, not his fellow students. Nothing, but him and the air. 

Then, with a burst of horror, he realised the path curved to the left, and he was in danger of overshooting it and being disqualified. 

He instantly slammed a webline straight down into the ground, and immediately he changed course downwards, just barely avoiding going off the set course. 

He slammed into the ground like a Boulder, though he landed right on his feet with no problems. 

Immediately after landing, Todoroki passed by, and froze him up to his neck in a thick layer of ice. 

Izuku was taken by surprise for a moment, then, putting some muscle into it, he simply stood up, breaking the ice with no particular difficulty. 

Then he kept running after Todoroki, only to see Mineta, the purple haired Dwarf launch himself at Todoroki. 

… Only to be immediately swatted away by a robot, slamming into the side of the course. Izuku looked at him with a worried look, but he was alive and judging by how he got back in his feet, he was relatively fine. 

The robot who had just sent him flying was one of the robots from the entrance exam. 

Upon seeing it clearly as it turned around to face the rapidly approaching Izuku, a vague memory of kicking this particular model's head like an American football popped into Izuku's head. 

This time a black line slammed into from above, a large, white tooth punching through it's skull with particular difficulty. 

Izuku dissolved the line and kept running. Then, something hit the ground with enough force to make the earth shake. 

Upon looking up, he didn't have any trouble seeing what it was. 

There, ahead of him, having seemingly popped out of nowhere so suddenly that even Todoroki had stopped in his tracks for the moment, was the zero point robot from the entrance exam. 

10 of them. 

Lining the course from one side to the other. 

Izuku stopped in his tracks to stare in shock, just like Todoroki had. 

That was a mistake however, as two blurs moved past both him and Todoroki. 

To his right, was a blur of pink, that could only be Mina Ashido. To his left, a brown blur that left bolts of pink lightning in her vake.

Both of them passed Todoroki in a flash, leaving him far behind. In Uraraka's case, she made a jump, hitting one of the massive robots, then jumping off of it and past. 

Mina took the less subtle approach and just burst her way straight through with a mass of acid. 

**-Get moving-**

Right, this wasn't the time to stand and gawk. 

He began running, building up speed again, and preparing a leap above them. They were just 5-6 stories tall. He could make that leap surely. 

Todoroki froze two in one instant with not difficulty, then he quickly ran forward. 

Izuku was about to jump. Then, he froze. 

The two enormous titans of steel had been moving forward when Todoroki froze them, and they were not in stable positions, not stable at all. 

They weren't a danger to Todoroki who ran beneath them at max speed, but for those who came after him… 

He made the decision.

He slammed his hands forward, and two scythes launched forward, embedding themselves into the main body of the one to the left. 

He rose up, only to slam his foot down for support for what he was about to do next. 

He  **_wrenched_ ** the enormous, massive robot to the right, the strain as he put his back into it, feeling like it was about to rip him apart. 

The robot flew, a mixture between the enormous pull, and it's own precarious position making it easier for it to be wrenched off it's feet, and it slammed into the one on the right, the enormous weight sending it crashing into the robot to it's own right. 

Izuku, didn't stop to listen to either the surprised reaction of his classmates, or Present Mic's commentary. He made another leap, this time landing in the front of a massive staircase. 

He could see Mina, Uraraka and Todoroki up ahead. For whatever reason, Todoroki had not frozen the staircase behind him. 

How nice. Not that it would have mattered to Izuku. 

He took the staircase in one go, soaring past both of the Girls and landing on a… A giant, flat topped stalagmite? 

He blinked, but yes, that's what it was. And in front of him was dozens of other giant flat topped stalagmites, connected to each other by ropes. Beneath was a massive black void, and the distance between each rock was mayhaps 20 meters at the smallest, and 60 at the longest, as they weren't laid out in a symmetrical pattern.

On the other side of the chasm, he could see that the course continued. 

**-Reminds me of home. Just without the giant spiders.-**

Izuku wasn't sure whether that was a joke, or serious. 

Either way, this was it. As he turned around, he could see that Mina, Uraraka and Todoroki also realised it. He could jump this chasm, they could not. 

This was where he left them in the dust. 

… Or that at least was what he was planning to do, but as he prepared to jmp, something barreled up the stairs, and something with a lot of force hit him hard, sending him flying over the edge. 

Shit. 

He vaguely heard someone call his name somewhere far away. 

He immediately sent a line into one of the rock formations, so he didn't just fall down into the void. 

Not far away, he heard some mechanical noises, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a wire with a spiked tip shooting forward and hitting that same rock. 

Whereas he moved like a pendulum, his assailant was instead hoisted up by the wire that Izuku now realised was a grappling hook gun of aume kind. 

This time, he did not slam into it with his body, instead hitting it feet first. 

He looked up at his assailant. 

The assailant was a girl with pink hair, a metal harness around her stomach and back from which 4 long, massive mechanical arms sprouted, and a set of mechanical boots. 

All of that would have been memorable enough, but to Izuku all of that took a backseat to her face. For as she stared down at him, the girl wore an such a cold expression and stared down upon him with a set of piercing yellow eyes that was filled with such intense hatred that he actually flinched. It took him a moment before he realised her pupils were shaped like a sniper scope, which just added to how intense they were. 

For one moment, they just stared at each other. 

Izuku with surprise, the girl with a level of personal loathing he had never seen anyone direct at him outside of Katsuki Bakugou. 

Then, almost as sudden as a whiplash, the girls face changed to a smile so natural that it could have been true and genuine hadn't it been for her look just a few seconds earlier. 

"See you later Midori!" 

Then, the mechanical arms began to climb, embedding themselves into the rock, carrying their wielder upwards. 

It took a moment before Izuku realised he had to do the same. 

He also made sure he climbed so he didn't end up where the girl had gone up. 

**-Have you met her before? We can't recall ever having seen her.-**

"No." Izuku answered as he climbed. 

Had he met her before? 

He would certainly like to think he had. He had a very good memory. 

But the fact was that he had absolutely no idea who the hell she was. But those eyes… 

That girl hated him. He could tell that without having to sense her soul. 

As he reached the top, he saw that his little detour into the chasms had cost him valuable time. 

Mina, and Uraraka were both reaching the end of the bridge of stalagmites. 

The pink haired girl and Todoroki wasn't too far behind them either. 

The pink haired girl moved at an astonishing speed with those arms clanking along the ground and carrying her. 

Still, the situation hadn't changed all that much. 

He could still jump all the way to the end from here. 

Which was exactly what he did. 

He landed hard on the edge of the chasm, and began running. He'd have preferred to just continue jumping, but the course went in a curve, so he couldn't just jump over it. 

Instead he had to run. 

He could both hear his pursuers as they finally passed the ropes and continued after him. 

The clanking of those arms were particularly noisy. 

He didn't really pay all too much attention as Present Mic talked loudly in the background, but he felt Venom tense as both of them picked up on one particular word. 

Minefield. 

There, quite a bit in front of them was an entrance to the main arena, where they had started. And in front of it, was two large lanes, filled with dirt where things had obviously been buried. 

Mines. 

Izuku knew from having watched the sports tournament before that the Mines weren't all that dangerous. 

They were powerful enough to knock you off your feet, but unless you were insane enough to dig them up from the heavy dirt they were buried under, they weren't deadly. 

And really, what kind of daft moron would do that? 

No, he saw the way forward. He would jump and simply never touch the ground. 

He ran to the very edge of where the track ended, then, he jumped. 

He soared over the first lane, then the second seemed to fly past beneath him… Until something slammed up into his left shoe, between his big toe and the one to it's side. 

He immediately snapped his head down to look. It was the grappling hook of the pink haired girl. 

For a moment he just stared at it, then it unfurled hooking his foot, and in horror he realised what was about to happen. 

There wasn't much he could do about it though. 

He slammed into the ground, and immediately the force of the impact triggered 4 Mines. 

The force of the explosion wasn't the worst in the world. With his enhanced durability, Izuku would have no problems taking that force. 

No the problem was not the explosion. It was the sound. 

Having seen them on TV plenty of times in his life, Izuku had never really considered how the sounds were dampened for broadcasts. 

Experiencing it for himself in person was quite a different story. 

The pain was immense, rocking him to his very core. He could feel Venom roar inside of his mind. 

For a moment he just laid there in the sand. Then, he began to stagger to his feet. He saw Uraraka pass him, then Mina. 

He had to… Had to… 

Something slammed into his chest, and locked itself around his chest with a grip of steel. 

Then, before he managed to do more than bring his hands up to try and rip it loose, he was flung through the air and the grip let go, sending him flying… Right into another set of Mines. 

The pain was no less than the first round, and once more Izuku found himself staggering to his feet, his entire body in pain, the black substance around him reknitting itself as Venom swore inside his skull, with curses that would have made any sailor proud. 

Then, before he had gotten back on his feet, another force grabbed him, this time his arm. 

He flinched and pulled back his hand, preparing to punch, only to freeze as he realised the person in question was Mina. 

"Wha-"

Without any explanation, the pink girl scooped him up in her arms, and began carrying him to the exit.

It took Izuku about 6 seconds of shock, before he realised Mina was carrying him bridal style. 

"WHA-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" 

"Helping out a friend of mine."

Mina said in a tone filled with an underlying anger. 

"So, who the hell is she? Another secret rival from your past?" Mina asked as they reached the exit, whereupon Mina was declared 3th and Izuku 4th.

It took Izuku a moment of furious thinking before he understood Mina was asking him a question, so hard was he blushing and flustered. 

"I… I don't know who she is. I-I never met her before."

"Seriously?" She said in an incredulous tone as she put Izuku down on his feet. 

"Cause I have to say Midori, she really seems to hate you." She nodded off towards another direction, where sure enough, the pink haired girl was staring daggers at him. 

The four massive arms of steel were also bared, their three pointed claws all being palms open towards him, as if desperately wanting to clench around him, and squeeze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun with this chapter. Also, holy hell is it gonna be a long ass while before we reach the point where Mei's beef with Izuku is explained.


	22. A Helping Hand

Izuku went to lean up against the wall as the rest of the participants began to pour in after them through the corridor that marked the end of the race. 

He really needed a breather after beating the Mines had put both him and Venom through. 

Mina on the other hand, once she had made sure he was fine by the wall of the stadium, went straight over towards the pink-haired girl, presumably to give her a piece of her mind. 

Izuku did not get to hear what they said to each other, given the distance, but the girl met Mina with a smile that did not drop as the pink-haired girl seemed to be on the verge of screaming at her. 

Izuku looked away, feeling both happy, confused, and bothered. 

Happy someone cared enough about him to go confront someone who had literarily knocked him into the ground, confused why in the world she hated him so much and bothered that Mina went to such lengths to help him out. 

It was as he stood there, and his senses fully returned, that he realized that her carrying him that last bit hadn't just been witnessed by everyone here, but had also just been recorded and shown on national TV. 

He buried his scarlet face in his hands, as a sense of shame began to fill him.

Well, he had managed to look like a complete idiot on TV. And more to the point, the 4th place was hollow, given he hadn't earned it himself. Any pro watching would know that if it hadn't been for Mina, he'd have fallen way further down on the rankings. 

Not to mention that Mina had given up any hope of ranking as number 1 to go help him out. Meaning not only had he failed on his own, but his failure had also been detrimental to one of his friends. 

It took quite a while before the rest of the classes finally finished the race. 

He hadn't realized how far ahead the top was in front of everyone else, but it took almost 15 minutes after they went through, before the final student finally reached the goal. 

Truth be told, Izuku would have preferred to rest with his shame for even longer, but as Midnight called out that it part 1 was over, he forced himself to put down his hands and look over towards the rest of the students. 

Amazingly enough, Mina was still talking to the pink haired girl, who still wore the same unnaturally regular smile she had when the conversation started. 

Mina, on the other hand, was so pissed that her face's regular soft pink color had been replaced by an angry burgundy-purple, and she had decided that screaming was a valid response after all. 

As he was walking over towards the other students, Mina essentially threw up her hands and did the same. Her expression was a thundercloud of seething, frustrated anger, which to Izuku seemed to be completely out of place of the normally cheerful girl. 

He wondered what the hell she had said to Mina to make her this upset. 

**"She seems to have a talent for pissing people off, this bitch."**

"Any idea why she hates us?" 

**"Don't look at us, clearly it is YOU she hates. After all, she called you Midori, not Venom."**

Izuku stopped in his tracks, just behind where Uraraka was standing. The realization just hitting him. 

That's right, she had called him Midori. The nickname Mina had given him. 

When the hell had she picked up that? Had she overheard the two of them talking? No, Venom hadn't remembered seeing her. And given he had a photographic memory, that meant he hadn't come close to her before. 

No, she had to have picked it up today, as he and Mina had been chatting. Had she been hovering behind them, just watching him menacingly, waiting for the moment to strike? 

That still did not explain why the hell she hated him. 

Izuku was still trying to figure out his newest enemy when Midnight finally Began to unveil the next part of the sports festival. 

"The top 42 of this round will move on to the next stage!" 

The results of who qualified as the top 42 flashed up on a holographic screen. 

With a moment of bitterness for both his and Mina's lost shot at first place, Izuku saw the top spot of Uraraka, then the pink-haired girl, who's named he finally now knew. 

Second place: Hatsume Mei. 

Beneath her was Mina, then him. Then Todoroki, followed by Bakugou, followed by a girl with thorny green hair he did not know.

He glanced over the pics. It seemed most(maybe all?) of his class had made it. 

That was good. 

"AND NOW, THE NEW STAGE SHALL TRULY BEGIN! THE PRESS IS GONNA BE GIVING IT ALL THEY GOT, SO PUT IN ALL YOU HAVE!!!" 

She gave another dramatic crack with her whip. 

"NOW I KNOW WHAT THE NEXT COURSE WILL BE! DYING IN SUSPENSE? WELL THE NEXT EXCERSICE WILL BE…."

She made an overly dramatic motion with her arm towards the holographic bull board, where the pictures of the 42 passing students blinked out and were replaced by the words "Cavalry Battle". 

A cavalry battle. Well. Izuku could not imagine any exercise where his own strength would be more limited. 

Sure, he wouldn't be completely helpless, but the fact was that whether he was the rider or the base, he would not be able to use his strength fully without damaging any potential teammate. 

Shit.

Midnight began explaining the rules, as an example picture of a basic cavalry team composed of Present Mic behind, 13 in front, and the two of them holding up All Might between them

"You students will be forming teams of 2 to four of your own choice, and get into a rider horse formation."

**-You Japanese have the weirdest sports events.-**

"The rules of engagement are the same as a regular one, with the goal being to snag your opponent's headbands, however, there is one change…"

"Each of you guys have been assigned a number depending on your placement in the race!" 

"So, it's just a gathering of points like the entrance exam? Well, that's easy." Satou interjected. 

"And the value of each team headband is dependent on it's member." Kirishima continued. 

Midnight, no less than Aizawa did not like being interrupted, and a crack of her whip to the side made the students shut up immediately. 

"SILENCE! I WAS GONNA EXPLAIN IT, SO SHUT UP ALREADY!" 

She took a brief moment to compose herself before continuing. 

"ANYWAY, Yes, the points are dependent on rank, so number 42 gets 5, number 41 gets 10, and so on until 2 gets 205."

Then she grinned a truly sadistic grin. 

"OH, AND NUMBER ONE, GETS NO LESS THAN 10 MILLIONS POINTS, SO WHOEVER GETS THAT HEADBAND, PRETTY MUCH WINS BY DEFAULT!"

It happened maybe 4 seconds after Midnight had finished saying those words. 

Everyone's attention turned towards Uraraka. Then the reality of the situation sunk in, and the atmosphere changed completely. 

It was astonishing how quickly it changed. 

It was wrong. So, so wrong. It was like a slap to the face. Before, everyone had been jovial, happy, neutral. No one had paid any attention to Uraraka. 

Then, in the blink of an eye, they changed. Every single one of them. Some much more so than others, but they all changed. The eyes of everyone around them became cold, calculation, exclusive. Every single one of them turned on her in that instant, the moment they realized she would be the biggest target in this section. 

He was back. Back to his middle school, back to every single time the class had turned on him to humiliate him. 

Only this time, he was on the opposite end. He was part of the group who singled someone else out. It shouldn't happen here, it shouldn't happen at Yuei. Yuei was supposed to be better than this. 

He felt sick. Truly, truly sick in a way he had never felt before. 

He couldn't be like this. He had to be different than this. 

He had to do something. 

What he did next, he did out of impulse, because it was the only thing he could think to do, and it being the only thing he could think of, he grabbed the action with both hands. 

"URARAKA, LET'S TEAM UP!" 

The atmosphere broke like a string that had been cut, as everyone, from Midnight, to his fellow students, to the crowds turned to look at him. 

He felt his cheeks go red, as the stares of thousands of people turned on him. He didn't care. In that single moment, the only thing that mattered to him in the whole world was to help out Uraraka. To give her a supporting hand. To help her now that she needed it. 

The brown-haired girl turned towards him, wearing an expression that was a mixture between surprise and relief. 

"Ah… OK!" 

She gave him a thumbs up with a scarred hand and a nervous but genuine big smile. 

"Let's do it!" 

\---

Midnight went on to explain the additional rules. 

They were pretty basic. The rider had to wear the headband on their head or neck, directly attacking other students with the intent to make them fall or injure would get you disqualified, and if the rider fell to the ground, Midnight would determine if the team was disqualified depending on how it happened, in other words, whether a quirk was used to just shatter it or if the rider just fell on his own. 

He was listening, but at that moment Izuku was busy inside his own head. He had made up a team, he thought he could lead to victory. He just had to get her them. 

The first was easy. 

Mina was looking at him with a surprised look, her eyes darting from him to Uraraka, but when Midnight's talking ended, he went over to her, and she didn't disappoint. 

"Sure." She grinned. "I like a team with friends better anyway!" 

He smiled. 

"Thank you!" 

"Any plans for the fourth member? Or are we doing this as a trio?" 

Mina asked as she followed behind him as he began walking again. 

"No… We NEED a fourth member. Anyway, I've got someone in mind."

That someone was a tall, blue-haired boy who looked like he was in his early twenties, not 15.

"Iida!" 

The tall boy turned at his call. 

"Yes, Midoriya?" 

"We need a fourth man on our team."

"... I see."

Uraraka, Mina, and Izuku stepped around Ida, forming a closed circle of the four friends.

"You three will form the horse, with Iida in front, Mina on the right and Uraraka on the left. I'll be rider. With my webbing, I can get back to the three of you in case Uraraka needs to throw me to avoid the headband being taken. That gives us a good level of increased mobility. Also, I'm really damned strong, so I can guard against any physical attack in any case."

He turned to Uraraka. 

"Uraraka will be our gravitational center. She can make all of us weightless, making our mobility way easier, but she's also strong enough to move all os us, while still anchoring herself. Also her strength is great for defenses too."

He turned to Mina. 

"Mina will be providing acid to deny the rest of the teams mobility to attack us. Also, her physical ability will be great for guarding."

And finally, he turned to Iida. 

"Lastly there's, you Iida, you'll be our front. With your sturdy legs and propulsion, you'll be good at both defence, and to move us in a pinch if we need to. Our strategy will essentially be defence and mobility. We run around for the entire match, making sure no one can snatch our band."

It was a good plan. One he had full confidence in. It WOULD work. 

Iida killed it with less than 20 words. 

"... You've really thought of everything Midoriya. As I would expect of you. But, I'm sorry. I refuse."

All of them stared at him in shock. 

Well everyone except for Venom. 

**"The fuck do you mean, I refuse!?"**

Iida was not taken aback by the hostile reaction. 

"Ever since the entrance exam, I have been losing out to you guys, again, and again. It is precisely because you guys are stronger than me, that I must refuse. Untempered as I am now."

Venom wouldn't hear of it. 

**"You can't just leave us in our time of need you… You DICK!"**

Iida's eyes went over to Uraraka. 

"Bakugou and Todoroki aren't the only people who see you two as rivals. So here, and now… I too challenge you."

And with that, he turned and walked over to Momo, Todoroki, and Kiminari, who had been standing off by themselves clearly waiting for him. 

Izuku stared after him, feeling despair as his plan fell to pieces. 

Venom, felt only wrath. 

**"THAT BACKSTABBING, TREACHEROUS, FALSE CUNT! WE WILL REMEMBER THIS TENYA IIDA! WE WILL HAVE OUR REVENGE UPON YOU FOR YOUR BETRAYAL!!!"**

Mina and Uraraka just stared at him. 

"Dude, I get it, he was kinda a dick, but that's… That's kinda a bit extreme reaction, isn't it? 

Venom snorted, and without a further word, he fused himself back inside Izuku's shirt. 

For a moment the 3 just stood there in silence. Finally, Izuku spoke.

"We… We Need a fourth member. It doesn't matter who, but we NEED a fourth member to make this work."

He turned to look at the two girls. 

"We should split up and try and find someone. ANYONE will do!"

They nodded and, without a further word, they went their separate way. 

… for about half a minute, when Mina came up to Izuku, just after he was turned down by Tsuyu, who had apparently been sniped by Shoji and Mineta. 

"Hey."

Izuku was startled as she pretty much popped up to his side without any warning.

"Mina? S-Shouldn't you be looking for a fourth member?" 

The pink girl, wearing a curious, questioning expression, was nonplussed. 

"We can look together. No problem with that right?."

Izuku wanted to object, to say that they would have a better chance to find someone if everyone went alone. But Mina silenced that with her next words. 

"Also, I had something I wanted to ask you about anyway. This seemed a good time to do it."

He stared at her for a moment. Then relented, and they began walking looking for a potential fourth member. 

He was silent for a bit before he asked. 

"So… What did you want to ask?" 

"Why were you so eager to form a team with Uraraka?" 

The tone wasn't angry, or annoyed. Just genuinely curious. 

"Is… Is there a reason I shouldn't have been? I mean, we are friends just like you and me are." 

"Well, yeah, but that's not what I was talking about. I was heading over to you after talking with that…  **Girl** , when that 10 million surprise dropped."

"You looked absolutely devastated. Like, I thought for a moment I'd heard wrong, and it was the fourth spot who got that number as a random surprise. But no, it was Uraraka. Then 10 seconds later, you just blurted out for the two of you to team up. What was that?" 

Izuku stopped walking. He didn't plan to, but he did. Mina stopped too, just looking at him with those black eyes of hers. 

"I…" How to explain this? "I… When Uraraka got that… Million on her head, everyone… Everyone turned on her. Like… Everyone around her. At least those I could see. I don't know about those behind me."

She stared at him. 

"You… Didn't like that she was picked out as a target."

It was a statement, not a question.

"No, I… Well yeah, but that's not it. Not really. I… I don't like it when people just turn on someone. Like… We should be friends, right? Comrades, classmates, and all that you know? Like… I feel like this should have been a moment where we came together. Like, Uraraka became a target, and needed support."

He clenched his fist. 

"Instead, the exact opposite happened. She became a target, and EVERYONE turned on her, for… For convenience sake." 

He tried not to make the bitterness show in his voice. He failed miserably. 

It brought back memories. Not of those who had supported Katsuki back during his middle school. Instead, the ones he remembered was those who couldn't be bothered. Those who saw him being targeted and singled out, and just stood there and condoned it. 

Those who couldn't be bothered, because doing so was inconvenient to them personally. 

As he saw the rest of the students out of the corners of his eyes, he saw that exact same thing. Not as indifferent, and certainly way more guilt as they glanced over at them, but it was the same sentiment. 

It was everything he didn't want to be. 

Mina stared at him. 

"So… You really didn't like that she was singled out, so you gave her support when no one else did? You… Didn't do it just because it was Uraraka? You would have done that for anyone who got number one?" 

He searched within himself for a moment. Not a long moment though. 

"Yes. I would. I… I don't like people being singled out. And I HATE that people don't help them when they are."

Mina's expression went from questioning, to one much more like her regular face. When she replied, it was with a supportive, almost relieved tone. 

"Wow. You're… A really cool guy Midori."

He did blush. But he took the compliment with a smile. 

"In that case, I'm really glad miss octopus didn't get first place then. Man, could you imagine us having to team up with HER?"

\---

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" 

Neither he nor Mina had managed to get a fourth partner.

Uraraka had, however. 

One with shoulder-length pink hair, and four robotic tentacle arms. 

Mina did not hide her thoughts on the matter. 

"Seriously Uraraka?! HER?" 

"Izuku said ANYONE would do, and she was the only one who said yes…"

Izuku stared at her face, though this time he could not see the hatred in Mei's eyes, as she had donned a set of black sunglasses. 

He could feel it though. He closed his eyes for a moment, to feel her soul. 

He had originally compared it internally as hatred like that Bakugou had towards him. 

He was wrong. 

Mei hated him, far, FAR more than Katsuki ever had. 

Unlike Katsuki though, she at the very least was capable of putting up a false, not angry face. It was far more chilling than any angry outburst from Katsuki had ever been. 

"So, what are we calling this team? Top 4?"

Izuku just stared at her. 

"Are… Are you just going to pretend that round 1 didn't happen?" 

"Sure. Water under the bridge. You need a 4th member, and I need to get into part 3 Right now. That's the  **only** thing that matters to me right now."

Their sights met, and he understood. 

Part 3 they would fight. No niceties, no holding back, no pretending. Just two people beating the shit out of each other. 

If she hated him as much as he knew she did, then a one on one was probably her goal today.

"Also, the spotlight is going to be on miss 10 000 000, and everyone is going to be looking at her team the most of all! It'll be a perfect time for me and my beloved babies to shine like the  **Sun** !" 

Mina and Izuku both just looked at her dumbfounded, while Uraraka scratched her head awkwardly. 

"Your… Babies?" Mina asked, confused. 

In answer, the four arms made some rather… Disturbing clicking noises. 

"Oh… Those creepy ass things."

"They aren't creepy! My little cuties Larry, Harry, Flo, and Moe are the greatest inventions of my life! They are a masterpiece of science and engineering that's going to pave the way for  **anyone** , Quirkless or otherwise to become a hero!" 

Izuku blinked. 

Had… Had she said that on purpose to get a rise out of him? Or… Was it just a boast? Could… Could those things really lead to quirkless heroes? 

Mina looked, first at Mei, then to Izuku, then back at Mei, then at Izuku. 

"Are… Are we seriously gonna go with her?" 

Izuku looked out over the field. 

He couldn't see a single solitary student. 

He made the choice. 

"It's either her, or we go with 3." 

"Yeah, but…" Mina seemed like she was trying desperately to find some excuse NOT to accept Mei unto their team. 

"I think we should give her a chance." Uraraka piped in. "I mean… We don't really know why she hates Izuku right… I mean… You two clearly have some history right? It can't ALL have been bad… right?" 

For just one moment, Mei's mask of a natural jovial face cracked like glass, her smile becoming grotesque. For some reason, she grasped around her left side. 

"Yes… History… We have that. "

The smile fixed itself, and the left hand unclenched itself from her shirt. 

"Let's make these 15 minutes peaceful ones, eh Midori? For old  **time's** sake?" 

She held out the hand in an open form. 

It trembled. 

Izuku hesitated for just one moment before he took it. They shook. Spider and Octopus. 

He really wished he remembered what those old times were.


	23. 15 Minutes Alies

"So… What does your quirk do exactly?" 

The tone of the question was friendly, which was in Stark contrast to the rest of the atmosphere. 

Namely, it was thick as mud. 

Having formed their human cavalry formation, they were now only waiting for the go signal for this entire round to start. 

Mina at the front, with Uraraka behind on the left and Mei on the right, with Izuku being held by their hands. 

He could feel the tenseness and underlying anger on his right side both in Mei's underlying anger directed at him and in Mina's anger towards Mei, both standing in sharp contrast with the Calmness of Uraraka. 

He was rather grateful towards Uraraka trying to be the peacemaker. Unlike Mina, he frankly didn't have any strong feelings on Mei one way or another. 

Other than confusion anyway. 

"Oh it's a mixed quirk, I've got awesome hawk-like eyesight, and superhuman toughness like an invincible sandbag."

Another mixed quirk. How many of those were in their school anyway? 

Uraraka, Todoroki, Mina, hell from what Mina told him, even Kaminari of all people had one. 

It made sense that Yuei would be a gathering of those extraordinary few who were lucky enough to inherit two quirks from their parents, but it still seemed insane to have no less than 4 in one single class. 

"That's seriously the metaphor you're going with for that? Sandbag? Not like… A steel wall or something?" 

Mina didn't attempt to hide the anger in her voice. She really didn't like Mei. 

By contrast, Mei really didn't seem to return her hostility at all. It seemed it was exclusively him she hated. 

"Indeed! I don't possess superhuman strength whatsoever, so without my trusty babies, I am helpless! Thankfully, my gadgets are gloriously strong, able to rip apart steel like tissue paper."

The metal arms, two of whom were to his left and right, clicked in agreement. Their placement might make tactical sense, but they sure as hell didn't make him feel any better. 

"Without any strength of my own, I am perfect for showcasing their incredible and amazing power to the world!" 

"... You got a lot of faith in those things. So… Are those your masterworks?" 

"Indeed they are Miss 10 000 000! I have nothing that comes close to their strength and versatility! Mikasa might have more range and power, but it is also incredibly likely to self-destruct! And Luke is more destructive, but it can't do anything else other than turn anything to ash and cinder! And then there's Eren, who'll just kill everything around it if it's not used carefully."

Izuku had a suspicion that Mei was planning to use "Mikasa, Eren, and Luke" against him during the next round. For now, though, she hadn't really brought out any more tech for this round, though she had given Uraraka her boots, which apparently contained some sort of air cushioning for high speed. 

"In comparison, my beloved arms are so much more versatile, strong enough to lift 40 tons, yet capable of movements so delicate that they can handle frail glass!" 

"AND NOW STUDENTS, GET READY FOR THE CAVALRY BATTLE! IT WILL BEGIN WHEN THIS COUNTDOWN REACHES ZERO, SO GET READY!" 

Izuku tensed. He saw that a lot of the teams were already turning to face them. 

"THREE!" 

He could feel the center of gravity shift beneath him as two incredibly strong metal arms embedded themselves into the ground for better stability. 

"TWO!!"

Mina tensed. Uraraka did likewise. Mei seemed almost relaxed. 

"ONE!!!" 

**"Let's rock!**

"START!!!!" 

Immediately two teams came barreling towards them, and with a feeling of dread, he saw that Jirou was at the head of one of them, carrying Hagakure the invisible girl behind her. 

Out of the entire class, she was far and away the biggest danger to Izuku himself, even more so than Todoroki. 

While the boy's fire might be the more intimidating, the fact was that the fire would only affect Izuku where it hit him. Sound-based attacks on the other hand would travel through Venom's entire body, the same way that the shock of a hand grenade exploding underwater had no resistance as it ripped apart anything unfortunate enough to be beneath the water with it. 

One hit from her earlobes and depending on how strong it was, Venom's mass would explode all over and Izuku would be horribly injured. 

It would be catastrophic right now. 

He made his decision with that in mind. 

With a quick raising of his hand, he aimed straight at Hagakure's headband, where her invisible head had to be. 

Then he let loose a web. 

He hoped to God that he would manage this before Jirou managed to react. 

He then jerked her forward and down, effectively making her head but Jirou from behind. 

"OWW!" 

The two girls let out a cry of pain simultaneously, and Jirou stumbled, bringing the group to an immediate stop. 

The web line disintegrated before Jirou could attack it with her lobes. 

His ploy to bring his great enemy to a halt was a great success, but it also meant that the other team barreling for them hadn't been halted, and was free to act as they pleased. 

Which they did. 

The team, composed of members from class 2-B all had quirks which Izuku wasn't familiar with, other than the guy who was made of metal who had the headband around his head. 

The one in front opened up the attack by stomping his foot down into the ground which turned to mush around it. Instantly, the ground beneath their feet did the same, and the entire group sank maybe a half meter into the ground. 

Shit! 

Izuku was about to webhook them to the wall just by and drag them up when suddenly, accompanied by mechanical sounds, two of metal arms of Mei shot up and embedded themselves into the wall behind them, and with no difficulty whatsoever it pulled them out and lifted them up and along the wall. 

The two other arms had grabbed around Mina and Uraraka, lifting them up. 

"Uraraka, weightless now!" The pink-haired tech wizard said with great enthusiasm. 

Then 3 seconds later, with a burst of strength that crushed the spot on the wall they had just been attached to, they sailed through the air across the battlefield, leaving the two attacking teams in the dust with amazing speed. 

Even with Uraraka's weight being the only thing that kept them linked to earth's gravitational pull, they still would have slammed into the ground with the force of a car crash, but with a burst of compressed air, they came to a stop right before the ground. 

"What do you think of my babies girls? Really cute and versatile aren't they?" 

Without thinking, Izuku, so used to being open with his praise, blurted out his thoughts. 

"Yeah, they're really amazing Hatsume!" 

"Your opinion is absolutely worthless to me Midori."

He flinched at the tone of her dismissal. 

**"New attackers coming from the left!"**

All of them snapped around as sure enough, a new team was barreling towards them. 

Though at first glance, "team" seemed an inaccurate description, for it seemed it was just Shoji running hunched over, with his wings going behind him and covering his back like a giant clam.

Izuku had to jerk his head backwards when a tongue shot out from a small opening of the giant clam with massive speed. 

It barely missed his headband and quickly pulled back again. 

In the frontal opening between the wings, Izuku saw that 3 students were sitting on top of Shoji's back. Mineta, Tokoyami, and Tsuyu. 

Clever, they used his great strength and size to carry all of them at once, along with his wings to cover them for defense. 

"We need to move, now!" 

"No need," Mei said, in a cheerful tone. 

Two metal arms shot forward, and closed their grip around the charging Shoji, and brought him to a sudden halt. 

Then, with a whip-like motion, the arms lifted all four of them up into the air, then flung them across the arena. 

Mina, Izuku, and Uraraka just stared after them for a moment. 

"I'm kinda starting to feel redundant here." Uraraka said in an awkward tone. 

Izuku's head exploded in pain. 

He screamed. 

He wasn't sure what happened next, but with a tug, he felt his headband be ripped from him. 

Then, snapping of mechanical tendrils. Once he finally managed to see clearly again, his team was facing towards another team. 

Bakugou's team. 

"Getting pretty full of yourself, huh bastard?"

He saw  **their** 10 million headband in his hand. 

Anger and adrenaline suddenly surged through him, and he acted without any thoughts. 

A black web line shot right into Katsuki's chest, and with a heave, Izuku ripped him straight through the air and towards him. 

He was going to punch that punk's face in-

Katsuki ripped the webline holding him to pieces with an explosion.

He still sailed through the air towards Izuku though, and his hand went to his regular pull back before an explosion. 

"HYA!" 

Izuku didn't see what Uraraka did, but Katsuki stopped in the air like the oxygen had just gained mass and slammed into him. 

Izuku saw the blonde boy get the wind knocked out of him, but he also saw him lose his grip on the headband. 

The band was suddenly engulfed in a black line and shortly afterwards, it sailed through the air, before once more being attached around Izuku's black head. 

He had hoped Katsuki would slam into the ground and be disqualified, but alas no. A large green, disembodied, flying hand gripped around his shirt and pulled him back towards his formation. 

Said hand looked kinda like it belonged to a green, humanoid dragon, though in reality, it belonged to a girl with really dark green hair. 

As it plopped Katsuki back on his seat, the hand both turned into a normal one, as well as reattaching to it's owner. 

"Fuck that was too close."

"Yeah Bakugou, if you touch the ground it's all over for us man!" 

"Shut the fuck up!" 

Katsuki seemed to have recovered fast from what had just happened. 

"Focus on the fucking enemy!" 

Then, as the two teams stared each other down, another team, lead by a boy with blonde hair swooped in from behind and yoinked Katsuki's headband with no difficulty. 

"You're way too easy 1-A." The blonde boy said with a cooky, mocking tone. 

Venom burst out laughing. 

Izuku himself suddenly felt incredible schadenfreude. 

"Getting pretty full of yourself, huh bastard?"

Katsuki looked like he was about actually explode, but instead, he was distracted as the blonde boy began to explain in large, overly prose speech about how much he sucked, and how easy it was to take the band from him. 

It was absolutely hilarious to see as all of Katsuki's attention shifted over at the blonde boy. 

Izuku would gladly have stood there and watched the following chase with a smile at Katsuki's expense, but instead he was pulled out of it, as they were challenged by another team. 

A team composed of Todoroki, Iida, Momo, and Kaminari. 

Of course. 

"Hey Mei, keep Izuku up for a second Kay?" 

"Ok!" 

A large, strong hand clasped around Izuku, keeping him upright as Mina let go of her left hand. 

With a large, no massive spray from left to right, a large, green liquid shot forth from. Her hand, turning the arm of her gym shirt to absolutely nothing, and the ground it hit disintegrated pretty much in the spot. 

The opposing team backed away, though the acid hadn't come close to hit them. 

Instead it began burrowing down, down into the ground, turning the ground in front of them into a pitfall, roughly 8 meters from one side to the other, and 3 meters between them and Todoroki's team. 

The green left her hand completely before she went back to hold up Izuku's foot. 

Izuku had never realized before how quickly the acid disappeared from her skin before. He would have to ask her about that later. 

"Can you jump that with that technique of yours Tenya?" 

They spoke regularly, but Izuku had no problems hearing what they said. 

"Probably, though if you wanna grab it with that move too, we have to do it right by the edge." 

A bunch of other teams tried attacking from behind. 

With a simple movement of his arm, a massive circular wall of ice formed behind them, protecting them from any attacks from behind. 

Izuku realized then that Todoroki had more than just one band around his neck. He'd been busy. 

I'd simply freeze the gap, but we need to be able to move, and those tentacles give them better footing than we would have. 

"We need to prevent them from moving towards the edge," Izuku said to his team. 

"Sure."

Then a fucking grenade, went sailing through the air. 

Both teams, thrower, and receiver panicked at the sight as it landed, Momo acting immediately and created a barricade in front of them. 

Then, rather than exploding into a ball of fire, the thing's popped into four pieces like a cleaved apple and ejected a bunch of small metal things on the ground, many of them falling into the pitfall. 

It took Izuku a moment before he realized what they were. Caltrops. 

"Caltrops? That's… A bit out of date isn't it?" 

"Not at all Uraraka! The ancient Caltrop is an amazingly effective weapon to prevent the enemy from moving around. Why, this baby was requested by one of our Teachers, the black-haired one with the bandages around his neck!" 

"Aizawa wants these?" Mina asked in a tone of despair, and Izuku had to agree. Aizawa with Caltrop's grenades was not something he ever wanted to imagine.

"Yeah, that was the name. I think. Anyway, I got the idea for this baby when I was 6 and I impaled my foot on a rusty nail once. Ever since then, I've realized just how awesome the power of impaling your enemies is. It's simple, practical, easy to use, and deadly, but it is also very, very personal. It's why I got razor-sharp knives in all of my four top babies!"

"That's… Nice."

"Also, these Caltrops are coated with a substance so they won't freeze easily. Aizawa's personal request."

"That's… Great for us, but… He could still just freeze the entire ground and 10 cm above it."

"Dont be such a goddamn nitpicker Midori!" 

Though, as he watched on the other side, their enemies were taking their sweet time doing that. Or anything really, they just seemed to be discussing strategy. 

Having gotten rid of Momo's barricade, the opposing team didn't seem to be in all that hurry to move. 

He glanced over at the holographic clock showcasing how long the match would go on for. 4 minutes left. 

Todoroki was a massive, massive problem. That firepower of his was just ridiculous. 

That said…

If they were going to be so indecisive, then they would have to take the consequences themselves. 

"Hey Hatsume, can your arms carry us up on the wall for 4 minutes?" 

"Are you a sorry, deceitful, excuse for a man?" 

"Alright then, here's what we-" 

Their enemy made their move with incredible speed. 

With a wave of his hand, Todoroki froze the ground, all the way to the edge, making the Caltrops useless. 

Then, Momo created a… Giant piece of flat wood, which they slammed into the ground in front of them. 

Izuku understood what was about to happen, as they jumped on it, then both Kaminari and Momo crouched and Jumped up in the air as Iida was still moving. 

Iida's legs burst with flame. 

It was Mina who saved them. 

The punk girl with the amazing reflexes and speed suddenly burst leftward, dragging Izuku's head out of the way of Todoroki's hands, which had just almost gotten his hand around it. 

The band was still safe around his head. 

It was still far, far too close for comfort. 

Time to go. 

"URARAKA, WEIGHTLESS! HATSUME, ON THE WALL NOW!"

Both thankfully obeyed without any objection, and once more the power of 4 mechanical arms sent them flying through the air, this time flying into the wall instead of away from it. 

Then, they began moving along the wall held up by the tentacles.

As they moved in a way no one else could Izuku thought to himself that they probably should have used this tactic from the start. 4 meters above everyone else, the wall put them out of reach of most of their enemies, and Mei's arms moved them at amazing speeds. 

The fact that no one managed to engage them before the round ended was proof enough of the viability of the strategy. 

\---

"TIME'S UP!" 

"Seems we actually made it, huh guys?" Mina said cheerfully. The pink girl wore a big, adorable smile on her face. 

Izuku felt happy seeing it, though truthfully, he just felt relief. Sheer, total relief that they had actually made it. 

"Yeah." Mei said in her usual, easygoing manner. 

Then, she unceremoniously dropped Izuku without a word. 

He had not expected it, but thankfully, his instincts, drilled into him over hundreds of hours in woods and mountains meant he had no problems landing on his feet from the four meter drop. 

He sighed. 

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!" Mina screamed above. The cheerful mood had evaporated like mist before the desert sun. 

"Our 15 minutes alliance is up, thus any reason I had to suspend him midair are gone."

Without another word, Mina landed besides him, having jumped rather than being carried down by Mei as she began scaling down the wall. 

"You okay Midori?" She said in a very soft voice.

"Y-yeah. It was just a four meter drop. It's fine."

"It's not fucking fine! You could have broken your neck!"

She placed a hand on his shoulder in a very protective manner, as she turned around to look at Mei, with clear absolute disgust in her eyes. 

Mei on the other hand completely ignored Izuku as she very gently placed Uraraka on the ground. 

"Well girls, it's been fun! And I've got tons of times for my babies to shine! If you two are interested in using tech to help you out, just come to our department, and I'll help you out!" 

"Um… Ok…" Uraraka said in a very awkward tone. 

Mina's response was short and to the point. 

Namely a simple hand gesture. 

"AND THE 4 WINNING TEAMS WHO WILL GO ON TO THE FINAL PART OF THIS FESTIVAL ARE…"

Izuku blinked. Oh yeah, they were still in a tournament. 

"AT FIRST PLACE, WE HAVE TEAM MIDORIYA! A TEAM OF RIVALRY THAT SPLIT IMMEDIATELY UPON VICTORY! " 

"AT SECOND PLACE, TEAM TODOROKI! THE MOST STABLE TEAM TODAY!" 

"AT THIRD PLACE, TEAM BAKUGOU! WHO MANAGED TO TURN THEMSELVES AROUND AT THE VERY END!"

Yes, of course Katsuki Bakugou had made it into the finals. Of course he had. 

"AND FINALLY, WE HAVE THE GREAT DARK HORSE TEAM OF THIS ROUND, TEAM SHINSOU!" 

Who?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this chapter finished, we finally reach the good stuff ive been planning for as long as this story has been an idea.


	24. Past, Present and Future

After round 2 of the sports festival, the entire event was put on a one hour break, to allow both the participants, announcers, and audience some time to rest, eat and drink before the whole thing started up again with the recreational activities that would the show before the finale. 

It was in many ways a time for rest, for planning, and for talks. 

For the pro's it was the point to discuss the development of this year's new young heroes. It was the usual discussion between the old guard and talks of who would be the likely one to win this year. 

For this year, the clear favorites were Todoroki Shoto, Mina Ashido, Uraraka Ochako, Izuku Midoriya, and somewhat surprisingly a tech department student in Mei Hatsume. 

For others, it was a discussion of possibly taking on a new hero as a sidekick, and which one showed the most potential. 

For Black Cat, a hero who's professional hero rank had been anywhere from 3 to 27 over the last 17 years since she came to this country, it was the time to meet with her second oldest child and discuss the tournament, Izuku Midoriya, and how much the girl absolutely hated Mei Hatsume. 

For the students, this was a time for a rather varied set of discussions and talks. 

For Mineta Minoru and Kaminari Denki, this was a time to prank their female classmates with a humiliating prank involving cheerleader outfits. 

For Mashirao Ojiro and Nirengeki Shoda, it was a time for contemplation of a hard decision based on personal pride. 

For Uraraka Ochako and Todoroki Shoto, it was a time to discuss a very depressing family tale of forced marriage, domestic abuse, spousal rape, and the time-honored tradition of men in power sending inconvenient women to the mental asylum. 

For Venom, the seventh child of Knull, and Setsuna Tokage, it was a time to detach part of themselves to go and listen in on said conversation. For Katsuki Bakugou it was a time to do the exact same thing by simply skulking in the shadows. 

And for Izuku Midoriya, it was time to seek out a rival and to be approached by a crazy old woman. 

\---

Izuku finished his food for the moment, a rather incredibly well-made hamburger. 

He bid goodbye to Iida and Tsuyu and prepared himself mentally for what to do. 

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. 

There were so, so many people around him. So many people, all doing their own thing. 

So many, many emotions. 

Anger, annoyance, joy, lust, jealousy, hate. Two people having sex in a bathroom. The wish to pull back was there, and it was strong, but for once he ignored it. He had to do this until he found the one he was looking for. 

There. 

The one who hated him. 

Paradoxically this soul who had a hatred burning more bitter than any other here was also one of the ones that was full of more joy and enthusiasm than almost anyone else. 

This girl absolutely loved her work. She loved her life more than almost any other here. It was a simple love too. Pure. 

And yet, that purity also hid the brightest hate.

Nervousness began to set in, as he realized she wasn't alone. 

He would have to approach this girl as people watched. He would have to ask for a word under four eyes, knowing fully well she would probably decline and humiliate him. 

It didn't change that he had to do this. He had to  **know** if he could learn it. Know why she hated him. 

He opened his eyes and began his journey towards Mei. 

As he reached the room where she was staying in, he saw the door was open. 

He steeled himself right by the entrance, preparing himself to go in. Instead, he halted, as he began to actually listen to what was being said. 

"So that was serious? Like… Your stuff is made for people with no quirks?" He thought the voice was familiar, but he just couldn't place it. 

Mei's voice as she replied was warm, energetic, and full of enthusiasm. 

"Well, that is one way to look at it, but actually, most of my stuff is meant for anyone, quirks, or otherwise. The big problem so many developers make is that they limit themselves to focus exclusively on quirk enhancement tech, even though realistically, we should focus on making general tech that could be used by anyone!"

"Alright… So… those arms of yours… You could make a set for anyone then?" 

"Oh, the actual arms aren't a problem at all. Sure, it'd take me maybe half a year to make another set from scratch, but yeah, I could do it."

"The main problem isn't the arms themselves. It's the tempering to make them as durable as they are now, and more annoyingly, the power source."

"If you have the cash for the material I'm gonna need, I can do the first no problem. Hell, I could even customize it so the metal would be any color you want! The big problem though is the energy to power them."

He heard a clacking sound, which sounded like someone was tapping something hard with a piece of metal. 

"The battery is the big secret to making them as powerful as they are. Like, if I had to settle for a smaller, regular battery, I'd get maybe only a lifting strength of one ton or so."

A small silence followed. 

"That still sounds pretty awesome."

"Yeah, Mei-San, that sounds amazing, I'll bet you anyone in the general department would be interested in arms that could lift a ton! Like, holy shit, that's still more than most of the damned heroics students!". 

So that was who these people were. General students, who wanted the power to jump into heroics. 

"...So what's the story about that battery of yours? You can't remake it?"

"Oh no, I could remake it with ease! No problem at all, but I'd need a certain creature's power to Kickstart it, and I don't have access to it anymore!"

"Damn, that sucks."

"Yeah, imagine if you could just mass produce that kinda thing! Like, holy shit that must be a powerful battery, to power those arms with that small size!"

Agreeing grunts. 

Izuku might have stood there for longer listening in, but at that moment, one of the students in the room decided to leave it for whatever reason. 

The guy in question froze when he saw Izuku. Then, with a short pause, he turned his head and called out. 

"Hey Mei, there's someone here to see you!" 

Before heading on, past Izuku. 

Izuku swallowed, but there wasn't anything to do now but go in, or run away. So he stepped inside. 

Inside, Mei was sitting by a table, showcasing a whole bunch of equipment. Around her were about 8th students. It seemed like she was actually at the end of a presentation, not in the middle of one. 

All eyes were on Izuku as he entered, and silence immediately fell over the room. 

Some glanced at Mei. 

As she sat looking at him, Mei's happy joyful grin soured into one of annoyance. 

"What do you want Midori?" 

He swallowed. 

"Could we talk… Just the two of us?" 

He expected her to go tell him to fuck off, but surprisingly Mei just nodded. 

She then picked up a small circular device with the words "Eren" Written on it, and a weird tube with various tech stuff on it, along with a cable on the bottom that she hooked to her harness. 

The rest she left on the table. 

He also noticed she was wearing a set of steampunk looking gauntlets, and the glasses she'd donned for the cavalry battle was now resting on top of her head. 

Once they were outside in the corridor, Mei took the lead and headed in the direction of outside. 

"Aren't… Aren't you afraid your gear could get stolen?" 

"Sure, but there are 5 different cameras in that room, so If it is, all I have to do is report it to Yuei, and they'll know the culpring right away."

"Wait, Yuei has cameras here?" 

"Of course they do Midori. There are cameras everywhere people walk except the bathrooms. If you want a truly private conversation you have to head outside or by one of the side entrances."

Okay, so… That was disturbing. 

"Why?" 

"Why? Weren't you there when the League of Villains attacked? I thought you fought that Rhino guy, or is that just gossip the students made up?" 

"No… I did fight him."

"That entire debacle is what's lead to this situation with massively heightened security. That includes way more cameras."

They reached a spot that not too long ago had been sued by Todoroki Shoto to tell Uraraka about his rather depressing life story. Mei, however, did not stop there, instead heading out towards the forest that surrounded the stadium. 

Only when they were surrounded by green did she stop and turn around. 

"Alright. Now that we have some privacy, what the hell did you want Midori?" 

"To talk."

She snorted. 

"And by that you mean to ask me questions."

"...Yes."

"Of course. So, what inane stuff did you want to ask about?" 

Izuku hesitated. He knew what he wanted to ask, but he really did not want to just come out and say he didn't remember her. That would probably not get a very good reaction. 

Being Izuku, he stumbled into the Minefield anyway. 

"Do you… Remember the last time we met?" 

Her eyes narrowed, then went down to linger on his chest where the white spider rested so prominently. 

"Yeah, I do. You haven't changed much since that day. Or rather you haven't changed at all."

"...Do you remember the date?"

"Sure, it was April 18th. Also, it was raining, lightning was pretty plentiful, and I accidentally dropped a wrench on your head."

April 18th? What April 18th? Last year? The year before that? Last year in April he had been trying to figure out his powers, hadn't he? 

And the year before that… No, he couldn't remember any big thing taking place in April. Not to mention, he was pretty sure he had never in his entire life had a wrench fall on his head.

"Are… Are you sure… I'm the guy you're thinking about?"

It was the wrong thing to say, and he realized it the moment he said it.

With a quick movement from her tentacles pushing her forward, Mei went from standing a comfortable distance away, to being literarily so close to his face that their noses touched. 

"You've got poofy green hair. A set of freckles like two plus patterns. A girlfriend who calls you Midori. The only thing that is different than the last time I saw you, is the amount of scars you've got. It's  **You** Izuku Midoriya. Have no doubts about that. "

He could feel her breath on his lips as she talked, and instinctually he wanted to back away hard, but he forced himself to stay where he was. He had to ask. 

"...Why… Why do you hate me so much?" 

"Because every single bad thing that has ever happened to me, has been because of  **You** and your  **false** promises."

For a moment her expression went from the cold one to the broken grimace she had worn when shaking his hand. And just like that time, her hand went down to clutch her left side in a desperate grip. 

"For you, that 18th of April is forever going to be one of the happiest moments of your life. For me, it was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I lost  **everything** that day. My  **family** , my  **health** , everything I ever owned or built except the clothes on my back. And it was all thanks to  **You** . **That** is why I hate you Izuku Midoriya."

Her voice was so filled with bile and Venom that the only thing Izuku could compare it to, was the league man with the hand on her face.

They stood there for maybe 10 seconds, before suddenly, and with no warning, Mei pulled away, and with the clanking of robot arms, she headed back towards the stadium. 

"I'll see you in the finals, Midori."

For a while, he just stood there looking after her.

**"Man, this day is just full of interesting conversations isn't it?"**

\---

After having gone back to the stadium, Izuku didn't go seek out his friends again. 

Right now, he was just desperately trying to figure out what the hell Mei had been talking about. 

He was still trying to reach a conclusion when he realized it was only 10 minutes left before the break was over. So, he quickly headed over to the toilet to do his business before the final stretch began. 

As could be expected, the toilet of Yuei's sports stadium was immaculate and clean. 

No one was there when he came in, and as he did his business, no one came in after him. 

It struck him right as he finished up and flushed down. 

An overwhelming, deep, primal sensation that something was wrong. 

The Black suit immediately engulfed him from head to toe as he wrenched the stall door open. 

The door to the outside was gone. 

He ran over to where it had been and knocked on the wall, but the sound was from a solid wall, not from a door. 

Did he have to break down the wall by force to escape here? Had Cementos closed this bathroom? Why?! Why would he do that? 

The lights went out. 

That wasn't a problem for Izuku, who was more than capable of seeing in the dark with the white clear eyes of a symbiote, but it could not be a good sign. 

There was something in the room with him. 

He slowly turned around. 

He could not see anything except the dark outlines of the bathroom. 

But he knew. There was something there. Someone was watching him. 

A light suddenly appeared above the washing sink on the opposite end of the room. 

He hesitated for a moment. Then he slowly began walking over to it. 

Then, as he watched, red English letters began to form on the mirror. Slowly, in order from left to right, like someone was writing on it in blood with an invisible hand. 

_ February 17th - 2218. The end of all races.  _

Izuku just stared at the date. That was… Early next year? 

Another spotlight suddenly appeared, this time over the next sink and mirror. 

_ White hair and red eyes, shall bring doom to all the world.  _

"What the hell is happening…"

It was at that moment that Izuku realized Venom wasn't talking. 

"Venom? Are you there?!" 

No answer. 

That… That could not be a good thing.

A third spotlight appeared. 

_ The Abyss has teeth.  _

What the hell did that mean? 

Then, the final sink. 

At first, Izuku thought a smaller hand was writing, but then he realized it was just the letters being much smaller than the rest, to fit in a longer message. The style was also much, much clearer, looking like it was written by someone with Supreme penmanship. 

_ We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Watch for that moment... and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap. It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly _

He didn't entirely understand the words that had been written. But he understood the meaning behind them in his soul like it was written in Japanese instead. 

Then finally, beneath the writing appeared a symbol. A circle with one line going down, then 3 bent ones on each side. It looked like a cartoonish bug design, with a tail. 

Then, suddenly, so suddenly it felt like he had gotten whiplash, the world returned to normal. 

He began breathing heavily, suddenly feeling sick. 

**"The fuck was that?"**

"I… I saw..." 

**"Yeah I saw, but for some reason, you couldn't hear me. The fuck was up with that?"**

"I don't know… Was that… A quirk attack?"

**"What, a psychic projection? Great. Those ALWAYS such fun to deal with."**

Izuku was about to reply. Then he realized how little time they had left before the third round began. 

He hurried towards the door, which thankfully opened without resistance. 

As he ran, he asked the question that burned right now. 

"What did any of that mean?" 

Venom took a moment before he answered. 

**-Well that first one was pretty clear. It's a date. So, a warning that somethings gonna happen that day. The end of all races apparently.-**

**-The second one warns of some figure with white hair and red eyes, who seems to be responsible for whatever is gonna happen.-**

"You seem… Pretty nonchalant about this."

**-We've heard doomsday proclamations before. They're usually overblown.-**

Venom hesitated a bit before continuing. 

**-The abyss has teeth, though… That's a Klyntar saying...-**

"It is!!?" 

**-Yes… It's a saying that's usually attributed to Knull, or the place between worlds. Carcosa…-**

"Is that… An important place?" 

**-Yes, you could say that. We still don't know what the hell any of that means though.-**

"Yeah… Then there was that last one… the world is on the precipice of change?"

**-Oh, that? Yeah, that's not a prophecy at all. It's a speech lifted directly from the Dragon Age franchise. So whoever it is who sent that message, is either a gamer or has watched the anime of it.-**

That… Kinda blew away a lot of the mysticism of this whole thing. 

"Should… Should we tell anyone about this?" 

**-Probably not. One of the big ass problems with psychic attacks is that you usually look like a crazy person when you try to discuss them with someone. It's one of the reasons mental powers are such a pain in the ass to deal with.-**

Izuku bit his lip as he finally reached the opening to the stadium, where everyone else was gathered already, and it was only a minute left before everything began. 

Mina and Uraraka both were looking at him with relieved faces, obviously worried he wouldn't show. 

Venom was probably right. Still… He didn't like the idea of not telling anyone about it.

Whoever it was that had sent this thing obviously thought it was important to send it to him specifically. So… Should he really not say anything about it to anyone? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When i wrote this chapter, i suddenly realised any younger reader who hasnt read the comics or watched the animated series probably has no idea who madame web is, and is probably gonna be really confused about this chapter's second half.


	25. Heirs of All Might

As Izuku took his place amongst the rest of the students, he couldn't help but notice a rather unusual sight. 

"Why… Why are you girls wearing cheerleader outfits?" 

"Because Kaminari and Mineta are the worst!" Momo replied, looking sideways at the two guys in question and staring daggers at them. 

The two boys seemed rather pleased with themselves if those smug smiles were any indication. 

"They told the rest of the girls that Aizawa wanted all the girls of 1-A to act as cheerleaders for the recreational games."

Mina explained. For whatever reason, she was the only one of the girls in their class not dressed in an Orange cheerleader outfit. 

**"And you guys seriously fucking bought that?!"** Venom asked in an incredulous tone. 

**"Holy shit, how gullible can you be to think Aizawa would want that, and even more insane, that he would send Mineta to go fetch you guys?"**

"No need to rub it in with salt." Jirou said bitterly. 

If anyone wanted to say more, they didn't get the chance, as Midnight decided to get the ball rolling on explaining the final set of tournament rules. 

Namely, they would partake in a 16 man elimination tournament, where they would fight one on one matches until only the winner of the tournament remained. 

"The matchups will be decided by drawing lots." 

The R-Rated Hero held up a box with a hole on top."

"Once that is decided, we'll move on to the festivities, and after that the tournament itself."

"It's up to each of you 16 to decide whether you wanna partake in the fun yourself. If you'd rather save your energy for the clashes ahead, that's fine too."

Yeah, that was definitely what Izuku was going to do. He had no plans of wrecking his nerves on games watched by hundreds of thousands of people, just before he was going to fight. 

"Now, let's begin with the first-place team-"

"Um… Excuse me?" 

Midnight was about to step down from the podium to get everyone to pull their number out when Ojiro, one of the students from Izuku's class Izuku had never really talked to, interrupted her, his hand raised in the air like he was in class asking a question. 

Everyone turned to look at him, which he did not seem to be all that happy about, given he suddenly seemed way more nervous. But he swallowed, and judging by his expression, he'd steeled himself to say whatever it was he wanted to say. 

"I'd… Like to drop out."

Izuku just stared at him in shock. So did the entire rest of the class. 

As could be expected, it was Kirishima who put the shocked surprise into words. 

"Why?! This is your great chance to be noticed by the pros!!! Why would you throw that away?!" 

Ojiro didn't seem perturbed by the reaction, though he did look incredibly uncomfortable. 

"The Cavalry battle… I have absolutely no memories of it at all, before the tail end of it."

He glanced over at one of the other students not in their class. 

"I'm guessing my team leader has something to do with it."

Izuku glanced over at the guy, and with a start, he realized he recognized him. He was the guy who had been so brazen outside their classroom some time back. He was also one of the students who had been talking with Mei at her presentation. 

Messy purple hair, and bags under his eyes. He wasn't hard to recognize. 

Ojiro continued. 

"I… I know this is an amazing opportunity… And I get how stupid it must seem for me to throw it away. But… This final part…"

He glanced over at Izuku, standing with Uraraka and Mina before he continued. 

"Everyone else here got here because of their own skill, strength, and effort, while I… I can't even remember how the hell I got here. I just… I can't accept that."

The invisible Hagakure tried to cheer him up. 

"C'mon man, you're thinking about this way too hard! Just go out there and show everyone what you're made of!" 

Ojiro however, didn't budge as he shook his head. He was almost crying Izuku realized with a start!

Of course, he was. He was humiliating himself for everyone to see because his pride wouldn't allow anything else. 

He wanted to say something, to try and help Ojiro out. But what? Tell him to just accept his placement? Or support his decision? Both would be adding to his humiliation, just in different ways. 

Before he could decide though, Ojiro was suddenly joined by one of his teammates from the previous round, a rather rotund, short student from 1-B, who Izuku didn't know, who also declared he wished to drop out, for the exact same reasons. 

The reaction as it became clear the two of them really were about to drop out was mixed. Some were confused, other sympathetic, Aoyama declared he would win for Ojiro's sake, while Kirishima declared the two of them to be real men. 

**-Well, if they want to throw away their future prospects for the sake of their pride, then so be it. That means less competitors for us right?-**

That assumption turned out to be inaccurate. 

After scolding them for being both naive and green, Midnight turned around and declared she liked their style anyway, and after a bit of talk, and internal politics of 1-B, the two who dropped out was replaced by two 1-B students. 

One was the loud boy made of metal and the other a girl with long, green thorny(Though more nubs than prickly and sharp) plant vines for hair. 

After all that was finally settled, it was time to draw lots. 

Izuku ended up getting the first match, against Shinsou, the leader of the team Ojiro had been on. 

As he stared up on the hologram display showing the tournament brackets, his first match wasn't what was on his mind, however. 

It was his second and far more importantly, his third match. 

The match between him and Mei was his third. Provided he could beat his first two opponents. Shinsou, and far, far more terrifyingly, Todoroki Shoto. OK, so there was a slight possibility, that he might face against Todoroki's first-round match Sero instead, but that… Wasn't gonna happen. 

Venom had once described Sero as "A poor man's version of us, in every single way imaginable.". Izuku would never have put it like that, but… Sero wasn't gonna win that round. It just wasn't gonna happen. 

He looked at Mei's opponents. 

Her first match would be against Iida, and then either Kaminari or Ibara, the plant haired girl. 

He had a lot more faith in Iida's chances than Sero's, but… Somehow, he knew, instinctually, that Mei was going to beat both her opponents. 

She would be there, to face him in round 3, provided he made it that far. 

And after her… 

His eyes went right to check out the other half of the tournament. 

He glanced over the names and came to a very simple conclusion. 

The final contestant of that half of the tournament would be either Mina or Uraraka. 

The two of them would subsequently face each other in the semi-final round, at the same point, he would face Mei. 

He was so engrossed thinking about the upcoming rounds, that he didn't notice his first opponent, Shinsou, coming up behind him to say hi. 

"Izuku Midoriya. That's you yeah?" 

Izuku snapped around, realized who he was talking to, and was about to reply with a simple Yes, only for something Fluffy to cover his mouth. 

"Don't answer him Midoriya!" 

That something Fluffy turned out to be the tip of Ojiro's tail. 

Shinsou just gave it a disdained look, then sighed and with a half-smile, he turned and walked off. 

"That guy… When he talks, don't answer him."

**"...Why?"**

"Cause I'm pretty sure he's got a mind control quirk."

Izuku just stared at him, as Ojiro removed his quirk. 

"Mind… Control?" 

Oh, that was bad, really, really bad. 

"... Yeah. Though maybe my loss would be your gain in this case."

He hesitated for a moment, before continuing. 

"My memories cuts off the moment I talked to him. That's probably the trick here."

Izuku suddenly relaxed a bit. 

"So there's a mechanism to it then. It's not just instant mind control?" 

That… Was actually somewhat common with Mind control quirks from all Izuku had seen about them. You usually had to do it through a mechanism of some kind. What that was though, could vary wildly. 

"... Still, if I do slip up, it's all over…"

**-Provided it affects both of us anyway.-**

Ojiro, not being able to hear what was said inside Izuku's mind, continued on like Venom hadn't said anything.

"Not necessarily. Even with how strong it was, it doesn't seem like an all mighty ability. Remember how I said I didn't remember anything until the very end? I'm… Pretty sure that at the end, I bumped up against Tetsutetsu's formation. And that's when I suddenly came to my senses."

**"So it can be broken by someone just bumping into you? Man, what a sub-rate mind control."**

"Maybe, but I don't really know how strong that bumping was. I came to my senses afterwards. Like, maybe it was just barely touching, or maybe we slammed into them, I don't know. Either way, in a one on one match, you guys will be alone, you won't have any outside help."

" Still… Thanks for telling me Ojiro."

The tailed boy got a sad smile on his face. 

"It's all I can do for you really."

He stepped a bit away from Izuku before continuing. 

"Anyway… This might be a bit out of line of me, but… Win this one for me." 

Then, giving him a wave as he did so, he turned and walked away. 

Izuku stared after him. 

He thought back on how he had felt when Mina carried him. The shame, the humiliation, knowing that he hadn't really deserved the 4th place. 

That kind of feeling was what Ojiro was feeling. Just much, much worse. He hadn't felt like what had happened had been earned, and so, rather than accept what he felt was an empty honor, he'd thrown it all away. 

He gave it his all, then suddenly he didn't get the chance to even do that. 

He clenched his fists. Everyone, there was giving it their all. Him included. 

He looked over at Shinsou's back as he was walking towards the exit of the arena, then to Todoroki, and finally his gaze turned to Mei, who was tinkering away at her own gloves.

All of them were here to win. Him, his rivals, his friends. All of them were here to win or to lose after giving it their all. 

\---

Izuku found Uraraka having seated herself at the 1-A spectator seats, looking down over the arena as the recreational activities had begun. 

She was completely alone, the rest either being down below or psyching themselves up elsewhere. 

"Oh, Izuku, you're not partaking either?" 

He couldn't help but notice she was still wearing her cheerleader outfit. 

"No, I'm… I'm not really in the mood."

She turned back to look down again. 

"Yeah… Me neither."

He noticed she was looking down at the rest of the girls, most of whom seemed to have decided to have some fun cheerleading anyway, despite not actually having to do it. 

The only ones who weren't was Uraraka, Jirou(Who was observing the other girls from behind with a flustered look on her face, and Mina who he didn't see anywhere. 

As he sat down in the seat beside her, Venom decided to pop out to talk. 

**"You know, if you'd asked us who amongst you girls wouldn't fall for that ridiculous scheme, Mina would not have been at the top of our list."**

Uraraka looked confused for a second before she realized what Venom was talking about. 

"Oh that. Well, Mina spent the break talking with her mom, and those two idiots probably didn't have the courage to try and trick her like that in front of Black Cat. Which given what I've seen of her, was probably for the best."

A bit of silence followed before Uraraka spoke again. 

" Hey… Izuku?"

" Yeah?"

"Are you… Worried about your first match?" 

"A bit." He admitted. 

"You?" 

"Sorta? Like… I'm not that worried about fighting Bakugou. Not here in an enclosed rectangle where he can't really maneuver fully, but… That's not really what I'm thinking about right now."

"It's… Not?" 

"No. I… I had a chat with Todoroki earlier. It was… A very depressing chat really. And during it I… Said some things that feels really, really awkward now, since I'm not gonna be fighting him in this tournament."

He just stared at her. 

"You don't think he'll make it to the finale?" 

"Of course he won't. You're his second match after all."

Her voice was perfectly steady and casual, without a hint of flattery or unsureness. She really believed, without a shadow of a doubt, that he would beat Todoroki. God, he wished he had her faith in him. 

Her next question caught him completely by surprise. 

"Izuku… Do you wanna be ranked number one?" 

He blinked. 

"What?" 

"The number one hero of Japan, or the world. Do you… Want to be that?" 

Izuku thought about it. 

It was the first time after bonding with Venom, where Izuku had actually considered the idea. Becoming the number one hero. It was something he had dreamed of when he was younger. Before he learned he was quirkless.

After that… He had become far, far too obsessed with trying to unlock a quirk to actually think of what to do afterwards, beyond using it to become a hero. 

Did he… Actually care about reaching the top spot. 

The answer surprised him, but he knew it was the truth. 

"Not really."

Uraraka seemed honestly surprised. 

"Really? You don't want it at all?" 

Izuku then remembered that, oh yeah, he was talking to All Might's daughter. She probably had some rather personal thoughts about the number one ranking. 

Also, what he was about to say would be about her dad, so this could become very awkward. 

"I… I've wanted to become a hero since I was a kid. Like… I can remember the moment that really made me want to be a hero was watching All Might's debut video."

"Seeing him rescue a hundred people… I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen. And since then…" 

He thought back to Stick-San helping him out in the night so long ago. He had taken the time out of his night to help just one person who needed it. 

"Everything I've seen since then has just confirmed that to me. Helping people. That is what being a hero is about. That is why Heroes are so cool. Because they help people when they need it."

"That is what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. Helping people. Becoming number one… Doesn't really matter much for that."

Uraraka stared at him like he was the most amazing sight she had ever seen in her life.

"God, you're a pure guy…"

She turned back towards the arena, where the rest of the first graders was having a race with giant balls. 

"You're right though… Becoming the number one hero takes more than just helping people when they need it. It means devoting  **everything** you have to becoming the greatest hero there is."

A short, awkward silence followed before Izuku broke it. 

"You… Want to become the number one then Uraraka?" 

He knew the answer of course, but right now he felt it was… Important to hear what Uraraka felt about it. 

"It's not really about what I want. I  **Have** to do it. I agreed to do it, and now I have to walk this road to the end. No matter what it takes."

"I'll have to become the number one hero, simple as that."

Simple was not the word he would have used for that road, but he didn't say it. Instead, he kept his mouth shut and let Uraraka talk. 

"As for what I want… Well... I have something I want to do too. And to do it, I'll need to reach the top."

Izuku was taken by surprise, and instinctually, he just asked her what was on his mind. 

"What do you want to do then?" 

Uraraka took a moment before she answered. 

"Do you… Know how many charities All Might partakes in each year?" 

"Well within Japan, last year he donated to 786 Charities, and the year before-" "The answer, is a lot." Uraraka cut him off. 

"Like, A LOT! and the number you just gave… Well, that was just for last year, and  **only** those within Japan."

Uraraka's expression changed as she talked, Izuku couldn't help but think she suddenly seemed so much more determined.

"The fact is, All Might is one of the richest singular people in the world. Like, he's actually earned billions during his life. And unlike so many other heroes, he actually pumps that cash into helping people."

" **Poor** students, families  **wrecked** by natural disasters,  **starving** people all around the world. People always talk about All Might in regards to how many people he's saved directly, or the countless Villains he's beaten over the years. But he's helped just as many, if not even more, just by throwing cash around."

"That almost never gets the spotlight, unless he personally partakes in something about it. But the fact is that his hero agency saves and helps thousands and thousands of people each day, just by writing checks and giving them to people."

It wasn't as if Izuku didn't know about what Uraraka was talking about here, or that he didn't agree. It just seemed… Strange that this was something Uraraka of all people seemed to be really, truly invested in. 

Or maybe that was wrong? After all, as All Might's daughter, wouldn't she have a much more detailed understanding of this than most people. 

"You've thought about this a lot."

"Yeah, I have. Money talks. That's the truth of the world. You can either rail against it, or you can work with it. I have things I want to do. Things like All Might's charities, just much, much larger. To do that, I need cash, to get the kind of cash I need to change the world, I need to become number one."

"I'm going to become the next symbol of peace. I'm going to bring smiles to people, safety for them to live in, and I'm going to make sure they all have food on the table to eat."

For a moment, as she finished her speech, she seemed to have momentarily forgotten Izuku was there, almost more like she was talking to herself. 

Then reality seemed to reassert itself, and she remembered Izuku was still there. 

"Sorry that… Kinda got heavy there for a moment."

"It's alright. I… I think that sounded really great Uraraka! You sound like you've really got what you want to do figured out!"

She had definitely put more thought into her future than he had his own at least.

The brown-haired young Amazon blushed. 

"T-Thanks…"

Then she became more somber again. 

"I… To be honest… I didn't use to think like this. I had way more selfish goals when I started the road to become a hero. But there was a point where I…" 

Her gaze suddenly became distant, and she didn't continue. 

**"So… Why did you bring up this topic in the first place?"**

Uraraka didn't answer at first. And when she did, it was with a troubled voice. 

"I… Got a reality check earlier about just how incredibly stupid and awful ambition can be. It made me wonder if… Trying to become number one is actually a good thing at all…"

An image of Katsuki burned through Izuku's mind. 

"Ambition isn't good or bad Uraraka. It's… It's your motivations, and what you do with them that matter. Not your end goal."

She turned again to look at him. 

"Like… your goal is to help people. It's… Not exactly the way I would have gone about it, but it's not a bad idea at all! I think you would make a great number one hero!" 

Once again, Uraraka blushed. Then she smiled. 

"Thank you… That's… I'm glad you think so."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, this chapter made me annoyed that i actually bothered to make a planned seperate storyline for Uraraka just so i would know where she was going as a character, then purposfully make a point of not exploring it, because this isn't her story.


	26. Lull

Izuku felt nervous as he walked down to the first battle. 

Maybe it was just his regular nerves once more rearing up. Maybe it was the fact that as the first bout in this final part of the tournament, it would by its very nature be focused more on than most of those that followed it. Maybe it was his enemy with a mind control power he didn't understand fully. 

Or maybe it was all of these combined.

Probably that. 

As he walked out from the entrance to the arena, he felt once more the eyes of the hundreds of people in the seats above them.

All watching him, judging him, evaluating him. 

It was an unnerving feeling, yet right now, as he stepped up to the heightened arena, all of it seemed to fade away into the background as his opponent did the same on the opposite end. 

Hitoshi Shinsou seemed rather laid back and disinterested as he stepped up into the rectangular ring. That was just his face however, as Izuku briefly closed his eyes to feel Shinsou out, he could sense how the purple-haired guy actually felt. 

Nervousness, bitterness, a desperate wish, a desire for something, probably winning this match. 

He… Wasn't all that different than Izuku. At least in how he was worried and nervous. He just hid it better, under a mask of indifference. 

In the background, Present Mic both made introductions and explained the rules. 

"THE FIRST MATCH! IN ONE CORNER WE HAVE IZUKU MIDORIYA! DON'T BE FOOLED BY HIS NERVOUS LOOKS, THIS BLACK SPIDERMAN HAS ONE OF THE BEST PERFORMANCES TODAY! A TRUE EXAMPLE OF THE HERO COURSE!" 

"AND IN THE OTHER CORNER, WE HAVE HITOSHI SHINSOU FROM THE GENERAL STUDIES! SORRY TO SAY, BUT THIS GUY HASN'T REALLY STOOD OUT SO FAR, WILL HE BE DIFFERENT HERE? OR WILL HIS UNEXPECTED SUCCESS BE STOPPED IN IT'S TRACKS BY THE SPIDERMAN!?" 

"THE RULES ARE PRETTY SIMPLE! YOU WIN BY KNOCKING YOUR ENEMY OUT OF THE RING, IMMOBILIZING THEM, OR MAKING THEM SURRENDER BY SAYING, I GIVE UP!" 

"OH, AND DON'T BE AFRAID TO BEING THE PAIN! WE'VE GOT OUR GOOD OLD RECOVERY GIRL READY ON STANDBY! FIGHT DIRTY IF YOU MUST! ETHICS HAVE NO MEANING HERE!" 

"WELL, OF COURSE, GOING FOR THE KILL IS A NO-NO! YOU'LL BE DISQUALIFIED IMMEDIATELY! A TRUE HERO'S FISTS ONLY STARTS TO FLY FOR REAL, WHEN BARED AGAINST A VILLAIN!" 

He finished the speech with a resounding and piercing "YEEEEAAAHHH!" which made Izuku and Venom both Vince in pain. 

**-We hate that guy so much.-**

Shinsou for his part just kept up the stoic act. 

"I give up huh?" 

Izuku almost answered by force of habit, but he remembered just in time and kept his mouth shut

"Get Izuku Midoriya? This battle is going to test your strength of will."

**-Actually, it's going to test our force of arms. Which against this guy is gonna be a piece of chocolate cake.-**

"If you've got any kind of vision for the future, there's no sense in worrying about how you get there."

"NOW, LET'S GET THIS THING STARTED!" 

"Like that damned  **Monkey** babbling about his sense of pride."

A jolt of anger shot through Izuku's mind. Not just from the way Shinsou described Ojiro's decision to forfeit, but also the very old, anti-quirk way he did it. 

"READYYYYYYY!" 

"What kind of dumbass throws away a chance like this?" 

"START!!!" 

Izuku moved forward. Stupidly though, anger made him shout back. He just wasn't the kind of guy who could keep his mouth shut in situations like this. 

"THE HELL DID YOU SAY?" 

He froze. His body completely froze up, and his consciousness seemed to stop completely. 

Inside of his mind, Venom sighed loudly, and theatrically. 

**-Seriously man? Holy shit, you would never survive in this world if it wasn't for us.-**

"It's my win." Shinsou said, calmly and stoically.

There was some other sound in the distant, distant background, but he didn't hear it. The only things he heard… Was Venom and Shinsou. 

They were the only things that mattered in the world. 

"You… Must be nice to have everything handed to you, Izuku Midoriya."

The voice tried to be calm, but the bitterness seeped through, before regaining its calmness with the next line. 

"Now turn around, and walk out of the ring."

He turned, obediently. 

Then he began to walk. He got two steps before his feet were glued to the ground. He tried to walk, he really, really did. 

Then, around his entire body, a black liquid encased him, not just his gym clothes and socks(He had ditched his shoes for the moment since one of them was ruined), but his entire body from toes to fingertips, to his head. 

The old feeling he got when Venom's white eyes formed over his own, permeated, for some reason, it didn't immediately fade, instead lingering. Then his sight returned. 

His hand went up in front of his face, seemingly just to get a good look at it as it splayed all his fingers outwards like he was painting a stone wall with an open hand. 

He tried to do something, anything else, but as the hand suddenly clenched into a fist, it was like he had just become a prisoner inside of his own skull. 

**-Ah, no resistance at all. It's just like you've been knocked unconscious. Just without any potential brain damage.-**

Down below, he felt a rip open where his mouth should have been. 

Then, no more capable of resisting this new force, than he had been the words of Shinsou, he turned around, slowly and methodically. 

Shinsou's face became a mixture between anger and surprise. 

"How? You shouldn't have any control at all!" 

His voice pierced into Izuku's ears, with no difficulty at all. Everything else was muted, but everything about them was deafening to him. 

**-Alrighty then, let's finish him off.-**

His body began to walk over towards Shinsou in a calm, collected manner like he was out buying groceries. 

Shinsou was sweating, but he had a smile on his face as they began approaching. A forced one. 

"Let me guess, your quirk took over, didn't it? Damn, that must be good, being blessed with such power!"

Venom kept the slow, casual walk as he moved over to Shinsou's doom. 

"Thanks to my quirk's nature, I never got to enter the golden gates myself! But I guess you wouldn't get that, since you're naturally blessed and all!" 

Izuku tried to think over the words Shinsou said, to decipher the meaning of them. But it was like looking through crack glass that was underwater. He just didn't understand what he was talking about. He felt like he should though. Like what was being said was of great importance. 

It wasn't a command, and thus he just couldn't see the meaning. His mind was like thick porridge. 

To Shinsou's credit, he didn't back away from the approaching alien, instead standing his ground. 

"You people… Born with your awesome quirks… Getting to follow all your damned dreams!". 

Suddenly, as Venom got close to him, Shinsou lunged forward, bringing his fist up against Venom's head. 

The punch landed hard but did about as much damage against him as a needle against plated steel. While he didn't hurt his hand nearly as bad as if he'd punched steel, he didn't manage to make a dent in the liquid that was surrounding Izuku either. Nor would he have had any better luck had he aimed for the natural weak spots of the human body, like the eyes or the groin. 

The second skin of a Klyntar host could stand up against most firearms short of machine guns and sniper rifles and had no problem defending him against the punches of a skinny, teenage, human boy. 

A black hand closed around the scruff of his jacket, lifted him up, and, in the ultimate power move, simply walked towards the exit while carrying him until he crossed the line near the edge that marked the end of the ring. 

All the way, Shinsou desperately tried to punch, push, and kick his way out of the grasp, but it was as futile as a snake in the jaw of a jaguar. 

"WINNER, IZUKU MIDORIYA!" 

The proclamation of victory was the first thing Izuku heard as his mind suddenly returned to normal, and reasserting control over his own body, his grip around Shinsou's shirt broke, making the other teenager plopped down on his own feet. 

His expression was one of ultimate frustration, forcing his eyes closed as he gritted his teeth. 

It all came back in a rush, sounds from all around him, cheers from the crowd, one particularly loud one he somehow manage to make out as Mina, thoughts flushing through his now reawoken mind. 

As Present Mic continued with proclaiming that he had made it to the second round, Shinsou just stood there in front of him, as the suit around his head dissolved. 

After maybe 10-15 seconds, he recomposed himself and headed over towards the center of the ring, where the two of them would bow to each other as a sign of a good match. 

Izuku felt… Not jubilation, or joy, or even a sense of shame he hadn't been able to win on his own. 

More than anything, as he and Shinsou bowed while the crowds clapped, he felt a sense of deep confusion. 

**-Well, that went well enough. You're lucky we're here though. Cause that would have been a really fucking embarrassing way to lose in the finals.-**

Izuku did not disagree. 

At this moment though, that wasn't what he was focusing on. Instead, as he watched Shinsou turn his back and leave, he wondered about his purple-haired foe.

He felt like… He was missing something really, really important, something right in front of his face. Something that had been said. 

The boy who walked away was filled, no, absolutely crushed by disappointment.

It made Izuku feel… Kinda guilty to have crushed him as they had. This was how it was in tournaments though. One winner and all others would lose. There wasn't much he could do about that. 

\---

After his victory, Izuku got back up to where 1-A's students sat to watch the matches. 

"Ah, Midoriya! I must say, you had us worried there for a second, yet you turned it around like it was nothing. Truly remarkable."

Tenya's tone was warm, and like Mina and Uraraka, he wore a smile as he welcomed him to the stands.

Venom, as he popped out of his shoulder to reply, had neither a smile, nor warmth in his tone as he scowled ad Iida. 

**"Correction, WE turned it around! If it hadn't been for us, this idiot would have easily lost in his very first match."**

Izuku blushed and scratched the back of his head, but he didn't make an argument. Venom was completely right. 

"Well, it worked out in the end, so that's good." Uraraka said, with a relieved tone. 

Mina on the other hand just stared at Venom with a curious expression. 

She opened her mouth to say something, only to get interrupted by Present Mic, announcing Sero and Todoroki's entrance to the ring. 

Izuku winced as the loud tone echoed across the arena. 

\---

Venom was not a stranger to hatred. It was the nature of Klyntars to hate those who wronged them and seek brutal vengeance for slights. 

Nor was their current situation without anyone to hate. There was both Katsuki Bakugou, whose feelings towards burned bright in both Izuku and Venom in a symbiotic bond. Then there was Iida, who had abandoned them in their time of need. 

And right now, there was Present Mic. 

Venom hated Present Mic with a passion. 

"HE'S TURNED AN EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE TO MAKE IT THIS FAR, AND YET, WHAT IS WITH THAT PLAIN JANE EXPRESSION? DOES IT EVER COME OFF? SERO HANTA OF THE HEROIC DEPARTMENT!" 

"VERSUS"

"AT THE START OF THE DAY, HE WAS DEEMED BY MOST AS THE MOST LIKELY TO WIN THE ENTIRE TOURNAMENT! WILL THE BOY WHO ONCE STOOD UNCHALLENGED AT THE TOP, BE ABLE TO PERSEVERE AGAINST HIS ENEMIES? OR WILL HE FALL HERE AT THE FINAL STEPS??? TODOROKI SHOUTO OF THAT SAME HEROIC DEPARTMENT!!!" 

Yes. Venom hated Present Mic and his shrill horrifying voice with every liquid of their being. 

As he finally shut up, Venom was able to finally get to watch the two contestants in peace. 

Earlier today, he had pegged Todoroki Shouto as the biggest enemy that had in 1-A.

Now, however… Well, it didn't matter if you had a superweapon or not. If you weren't willing to use it, it was worthless. They had seen that lesson play out again, and again throughout the Cosmos. 

They had learned a lot by listening in on the conversation between Todoroki and Uraraka. 

For one thing, they had decided that Izuku's theory on Uraraka being All Might's child was most certainly correct. Todoroki had confronted her with that very same accusation, and she had simply kept her mouth shut on the topic, not confirming, or denying the accusation. 

Secondly, they had learned a lot of Todoroki himself, and how he ticked. Venom could both understand and sympathize with his desire for vengeance upon his sire. In fact, if he had been Venom's own host, they would probably have given him several pointers on how to take a much better thought out revenge. 

Right now though, they and Todoroki were enemies, and Venom had no plans of not taking full advantage of Todoroki hamstringing his own powers. 

Without fire, there was little to fear from Todoroki. 

If this had been a real fight, they would have had to fear impalement, but without that… Well, there wasnt much to fear for the two of them. 

They would crush him with ease. Unless Todoroki managed to work through his issues and bring forth his flames during battle, this fight was as good as won. 

\---

Izuku stared in shock at the giant piece of ice that had seemingly materialized out of nowhere to encase Sero, going upwards, up far over the arena. 

It was like someone had dropped an iceberg in the middle of the arena. 

He couldn't see Sero, but apparently, the poor guy was immobilized at the epicenter of the suddenly appearing iceberg. In any case, he was declared the loser due to not being able to move. 

Izuku stood by the railing, looking down as in a massive flash of flame the iceberg was turned to nothing more than water vapor. 

He could feel his friends gazes on his back as he stared down in silence. They all understood, just as he did. He would have to face that enormous power in the next round. 

After the whole ice mountain was gone, and the two guys had exited the ring, the next pair was 1-A's Kaminari against 1-B's Shiozaki Ibara, the girl with the thorny green plant hair. 

It was briefly put on halt, however, as the girl apparently took great offense at being referred to as a thorny assassin by Present Mic, and called him out on it, proclaiming that as a hero, she was planning on dedicating herself to doing the work of "Our Lord Jesus", not to committing murders. Afterwards, she made a huge flowery speech about God's mercy upon criminals and the condemned. 

Izuku, who had very little knowledge of Christianity, beyond some very vague memories of personal rituals his father had done, took her word for it. 

Venom, on the other hand, seemed fascinated by her. 

**"So that's a Christian."**

"You… You don't need to say that like she's an animal at a zoo."

Venom didn't answer. Instead, he just kept staring down on her, giving her speech. 

"Why do you care about that anyway? I mean… Why would  **You** care about that kinda thing?" 

**-It is our experience that if there is any truth to a planet's religious beliefs, then 9 times out of 10, it's to be found in the dominant religion of the planet. In this case, that would be the Christian God.-**

Izuku stared at him, then turned his head back to look behind him, but none of the other guys paid him any heed, all were focused on Ibara. 

As he replied, he did so with a whisper. 

"What… What, you think there is some truth to… God?" 

**-That depends heavily on what you mean. If you're asking if we believe this possible God of man created the universe, then we would answer hell no. We've heard that claim far, far too many times by Gods across the universe to take it seriously. If there is some God that is the one above all others, we've yet to meet it.-**

Izuku just stared at him in dumbfounded silence as he continued, his mouth open. 

**-On the other hand, if you're asking if some divine creature kickstarted your race's rise as sentient creatures, or made you whole cloth from scratch, then yeah, that's completely possible. That's not too out of the ordinary.-**

Izuku continued to stare at him, before finally managing a weak reply. 

"You're… Talking like… You've actually met Gods…"

This time it was Venom's turn to look at him dumbfounded. 

**-We have. We were created by one, remember?-**

Izuku blinked. Oh yeah, that… Knull guy. Venom had been rather adamant that Knull was the true divine God of the Klyntar race, though to be honest, Izuku hadn't really fully bought it when Venom had explained his backstory to his mom. 

He… Kinda had assumed Knull was just some super proto symbiote of some kind. The fact he had been killed kinda made that theory way more believable. After all, what kind of God could die? 

Venom seemingly could sense, or at least guess what Izuku was thinking at the moment. 

**-He was a GOD, Izuku. You would have known that if you had ever been unfortunate enough to meet him.-**

Below, Ibara finally stopped her speech, the battle finally began, and the proud follower of Christ crushed her blonde opponent in less than 10 seconds. 


	27. Thunder and Explosions

"So what do you think about Iida-Kun's chances?"

Izuku and Uraraka both sat at the front seat as they stared down at their friend walking into the arena to face Mei Hatsume. 

**"He's gonna lose, that much is obvious."**

Venom's tone was harsh and dismissive, he still hadn't forgiven Iida for ditching them during the second round. 

Izuku did not contradict him though. 

Iida Tenya was one of the more impressive students of 1-A. He might not be in the absolute top of the class, but Izuku would have placed him firmly below the tops of 1-A. That was the problem though. He wasn't in the top of the class as far as battle abilities were concerned, and Izuku somehow knew, down to his bones, that Iida wouldn't win this next round. 

Maybe it was some other, deeper sense than sight, or maybe it was just that he understood Mei's capabilities as she had shown them so far, while also knowing that she hadn't shown the full extent of her technology yet. 

Either way, as the two combatants, entered the arena, Iida, tall and powerfully built, wearing a grave expression of seriousness. Mei with a new set of black lense goggles, and a carefree smile, suggesting she didn't have a care in the world. 

She was a bit different than she had been in the second round of the tournament. 

She had ditched the school gym jacket, and instead wore only a black top, which Izuku would have recognized as a sports bra if he had been more knowledgeable about such things. 

Now that she wasn't wearing a jacket, Izuku now saw that from the harness around her stomach, a piece of machinery went up her back, looking kinda like a pseudo exoskeleton like spine. 

She also wore that same set of steampunk looking gauntlets she had had on when last he spoke to her, only now both of them had cables connecting them to the metal harness. 

She had also attached the plain metal Tobe to said harness as well. Other than that, she remained pretty unchanged. Her boots were the same, and so were both her metal arms and her harness itself. 

It was a strange feeling looking down at her, knowing that this girl had come closer to his old goals of becoming a Hero despite being quirkless than he ever had. 

Well, technically not entirely true. He still was quirkless, his powers instead coming from an alien source, rather than the next stage of evolution. 

The point still stood though. 

This girl had come closer to making his old dreams a reality than he ever had. In fact, he had pretty much abandoned the idea of quirkless people becoming heroes once he had gotten powers of his own. It was just now that he realized that fact. 

He wasn't entirely sure how to feel about any of it. 

As for the coming battle itself though, he felt distinct worry for Iida, a worry, which the rest of the class didn't share, instead chatting cheerfully about Iida's chances. 

Well, everyone except Uraraka(Who seemed to share Izuku's worries), and Mina(Who just glared down at the pink-haired girl below without saying anything.) anyway. 

Izuku winced as Present Mic began announcing the combatants. 

"NOW, THE FIRST ROUNDS ARE REACHING THEIR HALFWAY POINT! NEXT UP WE HAVE IIDA TENYA OF THE HERO COURSE! AGAINST HIM WE HAVE THE UNEXPECTED MECHANICAL OCTOPUS OF THE SUPPORT COURSE, HATSUME MEI!" 

There was a lot of murmuring around the stadium, as Present Mic paused for dramatic effect. 

Then… 

"START!!!"

Iida speed towards Mei, the powerful engines in his legs going full out. 

"WHAT INCREDIBLE SPEED IDA!!!" 

Izuku was startled at the volume of her voice. Did she have a speaker set up somewhere? To maximize the volume?

Then, as she finished her sentence, she lifted her right hand up, an open palm towards the charging Iida, like she was Iron man and about to hit him with a beam. 

Iida instantly tried to jump to the side. 

He was fast, incredibly fast. But not fast enough. 

With a massive " _ CRACK!!! _ " that was amplified by whatever it was that Mei had set up to amplify her voice, and accompanied by a blinding flash of red light, a bolt of lightning shot out of Mei's hand and collided with Tenya, instantly knocking him out.

His speed kept him moving forward though, and had Mei's mechanical arms not shot forward to grab him, he probably would have gotten seriously hurt crashing and skidding across the floor. 

All around, a lot of the audience swore, having been temporarily blinded by the sudden, unexpected flash. 

Izuku was one of those, but his sight recovered way faster than the rest of the audience. 

As he blinked the spots of light away, his eyes went wide as he stared down at Mei, holding up the unconscious Iida by her metal arms, her actual arms going up and to the sides as if she was trying to embrace someone who was standing just a bit above her. 

"BUT NO MAN CAN OUTRUN THE LIGHTNING! BEHOLD! MIKASA 72.13! THE LIGHTNING GAUNTLETS! CAPABLE OF HARNESSING THE POWER OF ELECTRICITY IN AIMABLE, PRACTICAL BOLTS, RATHER THAN JUST SPEWING IT FORTH IN AN UNCONTROLLABLE STORM!" 

She raised her hands to the sky, and with two new sets of deafening thunderclaps and bright red lights, two bolts of red lightning shot up into the sky!

"IF KAMINARI DENKI HAD THESE IN THE PREVIOUS ROUND, SURELY HE WOULD HAVE TRIUMPHED, INSTEAD OF LOSING LIKE A COMPLETE CHUMP! BUT THIS IS NOT MERELY FOR THOSE WITH LIGHTNING QUIRKS THEMSELVES! NO, ANYONE WITH A POWERFUL ENOUGH SOURCE OF ENERGY CAN USE THESE AMAZING GAUNTLETS TO FIRE FORTH BOLTS WITH THE FORCE OF TAS-" ENOUGH ALREADY!!!"

Midnight halted Mei's speech(Though sales pitch was a better description), with a pretty annoyed expression. 

"THIS IS A TOURNAMENT, NOT A COMMERCIAL! YOU WON, NOW GET OUT OF THE RING SO THE NEXT COMBATANTS CAN TAKE THEIR PLACE!!!" 

Mei did not look the least bit bashful at the chastisement and simply bowed her head, still wearing that chipper smile on her face as she deposited Iida on the ground for the mechanical carriers to come and pick up. 

The audience though was far, far more impressed by the display than Midnight had been. As Mei walked towards the exit of the ring, Izuku could hear the sounds of thousands of people muttering, and chatting as the shock of the sudden blinding light had gone away. 

Izuku and Uraraka just stared, both of them slackjawed by the display of power. 

Mina on the other hand was way more blatant about her feelings on the matter. 

"Holy shit! That's… That's bad! That's really, really bad!" 

She looked over at Izuku with a worried expression. 

For his own part, Izuku felt a sense of creeping dread, that overshadowed any feelings he had of being nervous about facing Todoroki. 

He had expected Mei's additional gadgets to be dangerous, but he had assumed that her arms were what would be the most dangerous thing she had going for her. He had apparently been sorely mistaken by that. 

**-Huh, yeah we're gonna have to deal with those first. Lightning is never a joke.-**

\---

"He'll be fine." Recovery Girl's voice was calm, and somewhat reassuring, though still with an edge that warned she would not suffer any nonsense in her presence. 

Izuku let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. 

Iida didn't exactly look fine, with an expression of someone who had been knocked out cold, with an open mouth and hanging jaw and non-seeing eyes. 

"It looks much worse than it is." Recovery girl motioned her cane up and used the butt of it to close his jaw, and gently move his head over so it wasn't at it's side. 

"Despite the flashy effects, the bolts that crazy girl used against him weren't much stronger than a taser."

"So he'll be fine?" Uraraka asked in a relieved tone.

"Yes, yes so long as he gets time to recover, he'll be fine. Now then, since you two are NOT injured at the moment, and he will not wake up for the foreseeable future, I'm going to have to ask you two to leave. 

And just like that, the three of them were thrown out of the room for wounded students. 

They stood in silence for a moment, before Izuku sighed. 

"We… Should get going."

In the distance, he could hear the sounds of Mina's first match starting up against Aoyama. 

"I… I suppose."

They walked in silence for a moment. 

"So… Why does Mei hate you so much?" Uraraka finally asked. 

"I really wish I knew." Izuku answered truthfully. 

"According to her, we've met before, but I can't for the love of me remember any time I've seen her before today."

"Really? So like… You've got no idea who she is?" 

"No."

Uraraka looked at him as they walked, then turned her head forward, and brought her hand up in a manner that made it obvious she was mulling that piece of information over.

"You… Don't have amnesia or something like that? Like, maybe you've got some time period missing in your head?" 

"No, not really." Not to mention he actually had a date for their supposed meeting. And he was pretty sure he remembered that time exactly. 

He was gonna ask his mom about it when he got back home. If there was anything about that time he was missing, then she would be the only person who would know. 

Their silence was interrupted by a cheerful Mina, as the pink girl came up the staircase from the entrance. She was in high spirits so it was pretty obvious she had won her bout. 

"Yo guys, so how was Iida?" 

"He was fine." Izuku replied, not really wanting to break Mina's good mood. 

"Good to hear." She turned to Uraraka. "Bg the way, you should probably go down to the waiting room and get ready. It's your match after this next one."

Uraraka glanced down the steps, and nodded, then headed down the stairs, before coming to a halt, then turning back up to look at the two of them.

"Hey, Izuku…" 

"Yes?" 

It looked like the girl wanted to say something, but had trouble getting it out. Then she raised her hand in with a thumb up sign. 

"Let's meet in the finals."

Izuku blinked then, with only just a bit of prodding from Venom, he lifted his hand in a similar sign and nodded. 

As Uraraka ended out of eyesight, Mina whistled. 

"You think she's more worried about fighting Bakugou than she let's on?" 

"...Yes."

They began moving to the stands. 

"Hmmm… Should she be? Like, I know he's pretty good, but, frankly, from what I've seen, he's nowhere near the level of us three."

"I… I don't think Katsuki will win, but he… Well, he's not the kind of guy who does the same kind of blatant mistakes a second time."

Izuku thought about it. Whenever he thought about Katsuki these days, a seething layer of rage began to bubble in him, but he forced it down. He wanted to be objective about Mina's question. 

"Like… I know I crushed him easily during the training exercise, but that really wasn't a good showcase of Katsuki. His big weakness is that he's a Glass Cannon. One real hit and you can bring him down. But you actually have to land that hit to make it happen, which isn't as easy as I made it seem."

He fumbled a bit before continuing, trying to explain it. 

"Like… I know Katsuki, I know how he thinks, how he moves, what kind of patterns he has. Like, when he hits someone, he almost always uses a strong right. And when he moves using his legs, he also almost always starts with his right foot. Also, it's not as obvious now, as it was back during middle school, but when he gets up from sitting, he always does it to the right, unless he has to do it otherwise. That's how he moves, and when you see the pattern, it's easy to figure out, then there's the way he thinks. Like you probably figured it out by now, but he's a real sadist, who loves using his powers on those weaker than him. He doesn't really care about anyone else, as his incredibly aggressive personality has pretty much wrecked his relationship with his parents, and from what I've seen, he doesn't seem to have any contact with any of his "Friends" from middle school anymore, as, without any reason to hang out with anyone, he couldn't care less about socializing. And he loves spicy food, like, every single day his parents aren't home, he'll order the exact same thing to eat, crispy chicken topped Curry from Coco Ichiban, and it is always level 5, which is the spiciest curry they have. And when he cleans himself in the shower after physical classes he always begins cleaning himself with his left armpit, using the No More Tears shampoo brand. And before he goes to sleep he always watches super scary R-Rated horror films to help him sleep, and his main hobby outside of school is mountain climbing, though he might have dropped that when he enrolled at Yuei. He's also way, way smarter than he looks, he always scored near the top of our old school. Aggressive, intelligent, arrogant, and brash. Uraraka probably has figured out a lot of this stuff seeing him here at Yuei, but frankly, I really much doubt she has a full understanding of him yet. That might be a problem for her during the match."

After he was done, it took a moment of quiet walking through the corridor, before he realized no one was talking, and he turned to look at Mina. 

The pink girl(And Venom, though Izuku couldn't see him where he had manifested his head from his back.) stared at him with a completely dumbfounded expression, completely lost for words. 

"What?" 

Mina kept staring at him, her jaw wide open before she closed it, and finally replied, her voice as dumbfounded as her expression. 

"How… How do… How do you know all that stuff?!" 

"We… Used to be friends back in midd-... back in the day. I learned a lot watching him at his home and at school. And… Well, he hasn't really changed much. He's still the same prick he's always been, only now he's taller."

Mina kept staring at him with that same dumbfounded expression, and Izuku suddenly felt… Very self-conscious. Why should he be? This was all obvious stuff anyone who saw Katsuki all the time could pick up on. 

"...And you picked up on and remembered all of this stuff… Just by watching him?" 

"...Yes?" Izuku's voice came out a lot weaker than he would have liked. Mina's reaction had shaken him more than he would have expected. The idea she was creeped out by him… Well, it hurt, way more than he would have expected. 

"WOW, man… I don't know if I should be impressed, or terrified by your attention to detail."

Her voice did actually sound sorta impressed as she said it, but Izuku shrank down from the admission. 

"Sorry…"

"For what? Being attentive to detail? I wish I could remember minor clearly stuff like that." 

She was quiet for a moment before adding. "It would help with my grades at least."

Despite her trying to make light of it all, Izuku could tell from her tone that she wasn't comfortable with the level of detail Izuku had just revealed he knew about Katsuki. 

Suddenly Izuku felt incredibly… Guilty? No, that wasn't quite it. It was more like… A mixture of the old familiar feeling of self-loathing, mixed with fear. Self-loathing that he made her feel uneasy because of him being the way he was, and Fear she would leave him due to that. 

It was a stupid, stupid feeling, something he realized as he recognized it, but he felt it, nonetheless. 

\---

The match between Momo and her opponent, Tokage from 1-B, was so short that it was over before Izuku and Mina got back to their seats. 

"Huh. I was kinda hoping to see Tokage in action before we fight."

If she was disappointed for real, she didn't show it, as she sat down, Izuku taking his place beside her. 

The battle between the two Iron Men of 1-A and 1-B might have been an interesting sight in different circumstances, but at the moment, Izuku could only focus on the match that would follow it, and as Kirishima won a less orthodox victory than others had today, it was finally time.

Down below, the two contenders for the final match of the tournament stepped up into the ring. 

"IN ONE CORNER WE HAVE KATSUKI BAKUGOU! A CELEBRITY SINCE HIS SCHOOL DAYS, WITH A FACE THAT ONLY A MOTHER, COULD LOVE!!!... IT IS KATSUKI BAKUGOU OF THE HERO COURSE!" 

**-Did Mic seriously just call Bakugou ugly as sin?-**

He had, but Izuku was too focused on the other person in the ring at the moment to take any joy from it. 

He felt real, genuine worry for Uraraka. Worry that she would get hurt, that she'd lose and have her hopes of winning this tournament crushed here, by Bakugou. 

'VERSUS MY PERSONAL FAVORITE!!! URARAKA OCHAKO, ALSO OF THE HERO COURSE!!!"

The two students spoke something to each other down there below, but whatever his former friend and his current one said, he was not privy to hear. 

Whatever it was, they now stared at each other as they waited for the signal to start. 

"START!!!"

Then they began their dance. 

With bolts of pink lightning around her, Uraraka moved forward with a speed that made the kind of movement she showed when fighting him seem, if not slow, far less crisp and unpolished. 

Katsuki however, did not wait for her to engage in a fisticuffs brawl. 

With an explosion from his left hand, he shot up and into the sky, and as Uraraka's hand slammed where his stomach had just been he was 6 meters above. 

Then he brought both hands up over his head, a couple of crackles dancing along his fingers, then he brought them down towards Uraraka, an explosion engulfing the entire section of the arena, hitting Uraraka head-on. 

Izuku, who had been sitting as he watched, shot up into a standing position, both hands on the railing, accidentally breaking his chair seat with the massive force he used as he sprang up. 

He heard mutterings of shocked people all around, but he ignored them as his eyes watched the arena, desperately looking where Uraraka had been. 

There was still smoke from the explosion covering the ground.

Bakugou suddenly made another explosion with his fist, making him yet to the side. 

Izuku blinked. It looked like he had dodged something, but if so, Izuku hadn't seen what. 

As the smoke cleared below, he dodged again, another explosion in his hand. 

Then a third time. 

This time though, as he dodged, something new happened, and something, that was invisible to the naked eye slammed into him from below. 

He almost fell straight down, but he managed an emergency landing, cushioning his fall with two explosions. 

As the smoke from the massive explosion cleared completely, Uraraka stepped out of it, towards Katsuki. 

The explosion hadn't been without effect. For one, her school uniform was in complete tatters, looking like it was about to fall to pieces all over. The entire sipper on the front had been ripped away, along with pretty much the entire front of her jacket, though thankfully for her modesty, the upper part of her black undershirt was still intact, with only her stomach being visible. 

Her pants were similarly in tatters, though with them, it looked more like she had been hit by a grenade, with a ton of holes that looked like they had come from shrapnel. From the rocks thrown about from the explosion, Izuku realized. 

Bodily vise though, she at first seemed rather unharmed, other than singed hair, and a ton of scorch marks. 

Then Izuku noted that she had blood dripping from one ear. The explosion had damaged her ears at the very least. 

That was probably why she seemed in excruciating pain, judging by her expression as she stepped forward. 

Katsuki didn't seem to be in much better shape, hunched forward where he stood, clearly in massive pain. 

"What just happened? What was Bakugou hit by!?" Mineta asked from behind in a frantic tone. 

Izuku opened his mouth to answer, only to realize he wasn't entirely sure. 

Mina, however, had caught what he hadn't. 

"She threw stones at him. Small ones, at massive speeds, probably a result from the explosion hitting the arena floor."

She stepped up besides Izuku, though unlike him, she didn't lean out over the railing. 

"Then, when she saw she wasn't hitting him with those, she threw one of them as a distraction and hit him with that technique she used in the cavalry battle. Seems to have been way more powerful this time, though."

That it had. When she had hit him with that explosion during the cavalry battle, it had been like he had collided with something in the air. This time, it looked like she had broken several of his ribs if that posture was anything to go by. 

Then suddenly, both his hands shot up, their palms pointing towards Uraraka who was maybe 5 meters away. 

With a massive burst of speed and pink bolts, she moved from the spot she had been, to the corner of the ring behind Bakugou, avoiding an explosion of a magnitude similar to the previous one. 

She was about to attack when suddenly she froze as Katsuki slammed backwards from the force of the explosion, his legs suddenly no longer bracing for the impact, and he hit the ground unconscious. 

It was over so suddenly that it took a moment before everyone realized it. 

"Katsuki Bakugou is unable to continue, Winner is Uraraka Ochako." Midnight said calmly, as she quickly went over to the unconscious boy, and lifted him up. She carried him to the side where a carrier speedily came. 

"What… What just…"

**-One of his broken ribs probably pierced a lung when he fired off that second explosion. The git really is a glass Cannon of the highest caliber. Frighteningly high destructive power, but man, has no defensive power at all.-**

As he was carted off, however, Izuku did not focus on Katsuki, but instead of Uraraka, who stumbled her way out of the arena, both hands clutched around her bleeding ears. 


	28. The First Quarrel

It was amazing how Izuku had been so worried about his fight with Todoroki, only for all that worry to seemingly dissipate, as he instead only worried about Uraraka instead. 

He really, really wanted to go check up on her at the infirmary. To hear how badly she was hurt by the explosion. 

Instead, he was heading down towards the entrance, towards the arena where he was going to fight the boy with the highest potential for sheer destruction in class 1-A. The boy who could call forth the flames. 

And Izuku just couldn't focus on any of it. All his thoughts were instead on Uraraka, worried that the explosion had permanently damaged her ears. 

He was so out of it, that he didn't even feel it as he walked through the corridors, and someone was reaching the corner just in front of him, until as he walked, he crashed right into a massive figure, well over two meters tall. 

"Oh, sorry!" He squeaked out. Then he jumped back and winced as he realized his leg was touching fire, a sharp sting of pain shooting through his body. He hastily clapped on the part of his leg that had touched the flame, and he put it out. 

"Ah, there you are." Said a deep, hard voice. 

Izuku blinked at that voice. He knew who it was, of course, he was a giant Hero nerd, and it would have been inconceivable that he didn't recognize the man before him. 

Izuku swallowed, as he stared at the person before him. 

Over two meters tall, powerfully built with muscles so well built they seemed on the verge of splitting the dark blue material his skin-tight suit was made off apart. His hair was a dark red, complemented by a beard of flames, a mask of fire also adorning most of his face like a mask. 

His suit had flame running through it in lines, his boots practically looking like they were made of the stuff. 

Roughly 4-5 times Izuku's body mass, the towering figure in front of him was one of the most impressive heroes in Japanese history. A man who held the distinction of having solved more criminal cases than any other person in the history of the human race!

Todorki Enji. Endeavour. The number two hero of Japan. Todoroki Shotou's dad. 

He was an incredibly intimidating sight, looking more like a bear on fire than a man. 

Yet as he stared at him, it wasn't the build or the fire he instinctually feared so much that struck Izuku speechless. 

No, the thing that did that was his eyes. 

Endeavor had a presence, an aura of intimidation, which seemed to be permeating the very air around him. 

Yet it was those eyes that struck Izuku so hard. 

Enji Todoroki had clear blue eyes, which seemed so utterly, and completely without anything that could be taken as anything that even resembled anything a hero should be. They weren't compassionate, nor kind, nor friendly in any way. They were two blue holes of anger that were staring down at him. 

They were the same kind of blue as All Might, but they could not have been any different. 

At that moment, Izuku couldn't help but think of the Villains he had faced so far in his life. Rhino and Tel. 

Somehow, both of them had had more life and humanity in their eyes than this man did. 

He swallowed. 

Venom appeared on his shoulder and bared his teeth against the man covered in flames. 

Izuku could feel both his fear towards this man and his flames, as well as his anger at being burned by him(Though really, that was Izuku's own fault, not Endeavor's). There was also a large pang of… Disgust? 

Endeavor did not seem bothered by either of their reactions and continued talking. 

"I've been looking for you Izuku Midoriya."

"...Why?"

"I've been watching you very closely today."

Izuku suddenly found a large, pointing finger right in front of his face. 

"You and Uraraka Ochako to be specific. There are a couple of others around, but the two of you are the only ones who are going to be a real challenge for Shoto."

"Um… Thanks?" 

He felt like he should feel way more happy about being praised by a hero who had reached so high, but he just didn't. The flames he so feared got in the way. 

"Black Cat's brat might also have been a challenge for him, but she is up against Connor's bastard next round, and that isn't a battle she can win. So, it will be you and Uraraka Ochako who will be his tests for this tournament."

Izuku swallowed. Then an oddity with that statement struck him. 

"Wait, what about Mei?"

Endeavor snorted. 

"Shoto has nothing to fear from that girl. However brilliant she is as an inventor, the girl has never seen battle before. Not like you two have."

Izuku, bizarrely found himself wishing to stand up for Mei and push back on the way Endeavor dismissed her, but Endeavor continued before he could say anything. 

"Strength, speed, durability, and ranged power. Both of you have all of that in plenty. And though I'm rather sure the girl will become the more dangerous of you two in time, you are clearly the more powerful of you two at the moment, however inept you are at aerial combat."

Then, a truly terrifying grin spread across Endeavor's face. 

"And best of all, if that reaction you just had right now is any indication, you fear fire."

Izuku immediately began panicking, then bit his lip, and desperately tried to compose himself. He didn't need to have bothered. The terrified look on his face had told Endeavor that his guess had been right on.

Izuku swallowed. Hard. 

"That is good. Shoto will not prevail against you without using his flames. Either he will stop his ridiculous rebellion and use his flames, or you will crush him, and he will learn how helpless he is without MY flames. Either way, this will be a good test for him."

Izuku's brain took a few seconds before it caught up with what had just been said. 

"Wait, what?! Todoro-I mean, Shoto... He won't use his fire? Why?!" 

The revelation completely threw Izuku off guard. 

Endeavor finally withdrew his finger from Izuku's face. 

"The brat has reached the point of his life where he thinks he knows better than I do. Now, he refuses to use his fire powers for no other reason than to spite me."

Endeavor stepped to the side and walked past him, Izuku making sure to keep a good distance between him and the open flame, and his eyes never leaving the number 2.

Endeavor stopped for a moment, then without turning back he kept talking. 

"My boy Shoto… Has a duty to surpass All Might before he dies. Win or lose… This next fight will be critical for his development. So give it your all, Izuku Midoriya. Put on a good show out there. Show him how helpless he is without fire."

Izuku just stared at him, feeling like he had jumped into a manga at volume 3, and missed the character introduction. He didn't have the slightest idea about any of the context here. 

As endeavor left, not saying another word, Izuku felt utterly confused about everything. 

\---

Uraraka as Uraraka stepped back unto the viewing stands, she caught surprised looks from her classmates. 

"Man, that was quick." Mina commented, her face looking relieved. "Everything well with your ears?" 

She nodded. 

The truth was that she still felt a faint ringing in them, but Recovery Girl had told her that would fade in an hour or two. 

She would take her word for it. 

Compared to the insane pain she had felt after the battle, it was a small price to pay. 

As she sat down on the seat that had until recently been occupied by Izuku, a feeling of unease began to spread through her gut. 

Down below, Izuku and Shoto had both just entered the arena. 

Izuku looked like he usually did, with a nervous look on his face, His gym uniform being coated in a black substance. 

On the opposite end of the arena was Todoroki Shoto. Wearing a cold, stoic, determined look on his face, he also didn't look much different than he usually did. 

At least that's how she would have described that look yesterday. Today, she knew more about Shoto, how he came to be, and what drove him. 

She was able to see that underlying anger, just hidden beneath the surface. More important than that, however, was that she thought he seemed incredibly… Sad. 

She didn't know what to feel about this match. 

She had little doubt Izuku would win, and she would be happy for him if he did, but at the same time… she would not be happy if Shoto lost. 

She had no idea how to help Shoto right now. But him suffering a crushing defeat in this tournament could surely not be the answer. 

Storms. Before today, she had been so nervous about this tournament. She had seen it as just a sports competition. An important milestone for her, her first real test where she was thrust into the spotlight as All Might's successor. 

Now… That seemed to be the furthest thing from her mind. Instead, she was worried about Shoto and his struggles with his asshole dad, the fact that she just couldn't see a way to help Shoto. 

Wasn't that what being a hero was all about? Helping people? How did she help Shoto in the situation he was in?

Had Uraraka been older, and more experienced in the way of the world, she would have known the answer. Take the information to All Might. Or Aizawa, or literarily any of the adult Heroes in her life, or just take it directly to child services. 

Alas, being young, and with the idea that she had to solve everything herself, she failed to see this obvious, easy answer. 

Down below the fight started. 

\---

Shoto slammed his foot down and ice shot up around it. In less than a second afterwards, a giant mass of ice shot forward up along the ground towards Izuku with the speed of a moving car. Only this mass had sharp, pointy spikes at the front. 

Izuku jumped, soaring straight up into the sky, and avoiding the mass of ice, which now formed a wall across the arena below. 

A line of black slammed down into the ground to the right side of the wall, and with a heave, Izuku shot down again, barely avoiding as another mass of ice shot upwards where he had just been. 

As he slammed down into the ground, the mass of ice that had just shot into the sky, slammed down, into the ice wall just to his right. A shower of broken ice hit him, and all the ground around him, though since the black suit that was Venom had instantly covered him fully when the fight began, he had suffered no damage. 

Izuku saw Shoto make the move for his next attack. Time to counter-attack. 

His right hand shot up and from it, a line of black web surged forward, right at Shoto's chest. 

Instead of hitting him, however, a big wall of ice, roughly two meters tall, materialized out of thin air to block it, Todoroki having instantly switched from attack to defence.

Izuku tried to simply wrench the ice away to the side and out of the arena, but all that got, was that a chunk of ice broke off from the rest, and sailed through the air, crashing into the walls of the arena. 

Adrenaline shot through Izuku, so he was fully prepared when Todoroki suddenly shot up from behind the ice wall, having propelled himself up with a wall of ice from below. 

His hands shot up, preparing to fire another line at Shoto, only to stop as a wall of ice shot forward, not at him, but instead above him, forming a roof above, blocking off his view of Shoto. 

Another wall suddenly shot forward at his right side, enclosing him off, with only the way behind him open to the air. 

He understood what was about to happen next. 

Then, as the wall in front of him began shooting towards him, preparing to push him towards the edge of the arena, he sprang sideways to the left, into the first wall of ice, and putting his entire strength into it, he hit the wall with a punch of the same force he had used when he hit Rhino in the face. 

The wall of ice, a solid mass of frozen liquid  **exploded** from the impact, and, Izuku sprang through the hole, barely avoiding the surging wall. 

Then, he jumped up, and unto what was essentially now a giant block of ice. At the side of the arena, the wall of ice Todoroki had pushed forward below trying to force Izuku out of bounds, crashed to the ground outside the arena. 

As he landed on top of the wall, he had expected Todoroki to be standing ready for a new attack. Instead, the boy was moving quickly to the right, and as he jumped across the edge of the block, he created a block of ice that in Izuku's opinion looked like a frozen wave, one which he rode down unto the arena, turning around in the process, facing Izuku as he stood on top of the block of Ice. 

Right by where he now stood facing Izuku, Midnight was standing slightly to the side, looking strangely excited by the battle in front of her. In the background Present Mic was saying something loud, the crowd cheered, and somehow Izuku once more managed to single out the voice that was Mina Ashido, though in this case, he could also hear Uraraka. 

As he stood there looking down at Shoto, Izuku took in the sight of the boy. 

Izuku had considered attack Todoroki as he moved, but instead had halted his attack, letting him move. He had thought he had seen something in Shoto's movements, and now as he looked down at him, he had confirmed what he thought he had seen. 

The boy was shivering. 

**-Seems he wasn't as much of a pushover without his fire as we thought he'd be.-**

Izuku narrowed his eyes. 

No… He saw the path forward. The path to victory. 

He muttered his plans to Venom, asking a question. Venom replied in an affirmative, then gave a quick summary, to which the teenager nodded. 

"Midnight-Sensei!" Izuku called out the teacher who judged the match. 

As he talked, the mass around his hands began to expand, bubble, compress and prepare for what he was planning next. 

"Please get behind Todoroki-San! It is the only place that will be safe in a bit!"

Midnight stiffened, then, her grin became a strange mixture between curious, and excited, and she promptly walked behind Shoto, not asking another question. 

Shoto for his part stood on alert, standing ready for whatever Izuku was planning. He seemed to be on the defensive now, not eager to attack as he had just been a short while before. Izuku was pretty sure he knew why that was. 

Izuku stood there, letting the liquid around his hands expand freely. 

Shoto watched his hands, clearly worried about what it was Izuku was planning. 

Izuku was counting on it. 

Quick as a snake, Izuku ripped his leg upward, a chunk of ice still stuck to the bottom of it thanks to him still willing the black piece of his suit to hold to the ice he was standing on, the way it did when he was climbing. 

The ice that he ripped out wasn't that large, maybe a bit smaller than a basketball. 

Izuku let go, then using quite some force, he kicked it, shattering it into a hundred pieces, all of them aimed in the direction towards Shoto. 

Instantly, a wall of ice shot up in front of him, making the pieces of ice bounce off of it harmlessly. 

That was fine though. The ice attack had just been a distraction. 

Izuku whirled his hands to the sides and downwards, spraying the ice block, not with a thin but solid line of web, but instead a much thinner, less compressed layer of black. 

The entire top was coated, but instead of that being it, the black mass instead kept expanding, moving around the block of ice, coating the sides in a thin layer of black. 

Izuku jumped down the side Shoto was, hitting the ground, as the wall of ice Shoto had used to protect himself fell forward, having been pushed to give Shoto clear sight. 

Again, he didn't immediately attack, as he had at the start. Chunks of ice clung to his skin, in particular his right arm. 

Amazingly, this entire fight had only gone on for 2-3 minutes tops so far. In those two minutes, Izuku had now glimpsed a fatal weakness in Todoroki Shoto's ice abilities. 

"You're not used to firing off massive attack after attack in rapid succession are you?" Izuku said. Loudly. 

Todoroki tensed but didn't reply. Behind him, Venom kept replicating around the block of ice through a line of black from Izuku's leg, slowly but surely painting the entire block of ice into a dark, black color. 

"I never really noticed it before now, because you always tend to finish things in a flash, but after each exercise or battle I've ever seen you do, you use your fire to melt your own ice."

"You aren't able to handle the cold without it overwhelming you. Your powers work in a symbiotic way. You use your fire to make sure the cold in your body doesn't overwhelm you. I'm guessing your fire powers work in the same way with your ice."

**-We're done.-**

Izuku quickly stepped back, his arms shooting up and backwards, his palms landing flat against the giant block of ice. 

His hands dug into the ice, and he slammed his right foot forward, putting the upper part of his body into it, as he pulled with his arms and,  **heaved.** With relative ease, he lifted the entire block of ice up, and over his head. The black mass coating everything but the bottom, as Izuku had hoped, prevented the thing from just breaking apart under it's own weight along the lines of the 4 pieces of ice the block was made off. 

As Izuku stood there, lifting the entire thing over his head, he couldn't help but think that this thing was surprisingly light, given it was essentially the size of his family's apartment. 

To his credit, Shoto made his next move before Izuku was done throwing the gigantic mass of ice at him. 

A giant wall of ice shot up in front of him, as a shield against the flying pieces of ice. 

The projectile and the wall, both exploded into a gigantic shower of ice, coating the part of the arena Izuku had been standing on, in a hail of sharp pieces of frozen liquid and dust. 

Not that Izuku had anything to fear, as he jumped up high, avoiding the entire thing. 

As he slammed into the ground again, he jumped backwards, putting some distance between him and Shoto. 

In front of him, the gigantic piece of ice Shoto had summoned to protect himself, had held, but was also massively cracked. 

Then, as he watched, the entire thing shattered as another burst of moving ice shot forward at him! 

He dodged to the side, avoiding the attack, which just kept going out of the arena, slamming into the wall before it finally stopped. It did so at a much slower pace than his previous attacks. 

In front of him, at the other side of the arena stood Shoto, and behind him Midnight, who again seemed to be rather impressed with the battle so far. 

The projectile hadn't done any physical damage to either of them, just as Izuku had known it wouldn't, but his goal with it had been reached. 

Shoto, who had just now been shivering, and covered in ice, was now full-on shaking, with chunks of frost and ice stuck to his entire right side. 

While the size of the wall was probably a factor, the main problem as Izuku had already determined, was the way he fired off huge scale attacks, rapidly, without any time in between. 

If he just used his fire to heat up his right side, none of this would be a problem of course, but just like endeavor said, he wasn't using his flames at all during this battle. 

Izuku could see the way to victory. All he had to do was keep forcing him to use his powers in rapid succession to defend himself, and sooner or later Shoto would be left defenceless. 

Easy, simple, and safe. 

And yet…

"Why aren't you using your fire powers?" He asked loudly, just a bit of anger creeping into his voice. 

Shoto stiffened, then, the normally stoic boy growled. 

'Why do you care?"

"You're going to lose. Badly. You've got NO chance of winning this fight without using your fire powers."

Shoto's expression turned from a stoic look, into something feral, his teeth gritted, and his face and eyes becoming a beacon of anger. 

"I'm NOT going to use my fires for battle. I'm gonna reach the top without giving my father an  **inch** of satisfaction!"

"What, so you're gonna half-ass it instead?" Izuku said, real anger beginning to boil in him. 

**-Wait, what are you doing?-**

Izuku ignored the voice in his head as he continued. 

"Everyone else here is putting  **everything** they have into winning this tournament. Ojiro gave up on his chance because he didn't earn his spot in the final through his own efforts, Mei put aside her hatred of me, just to reach the finals, fucking Katsuki knocked himself out, putting in everything he had, just to try and win!"

A large part of the anger that flowed through his mind at that moment was due to the adrenaline Venom was pumping through him. But even without it, this was something that galled Izuku anyway. The idea that Todoroki wasn't giving this his all. 

"Everyone of us is giving it our  **all!** And yet here you are, thinking you can win, even when holding back half of your power! It's an insult! To me, to this tournament, to  **EVERYONE!** SO COME ON TODOROKI! STOP HALF ASSING THIS AND COME AT ME! WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE G-"

At that his speech was suddenly halted as the black mass around his head expanded outwards forming Venom's head above his shoulder, facing him, as a black line formed across his mouth shutting him up. 

**"What the fuck are you doing Izuku!"**

Izuku startled, shocked from the gag, then his hands went up and ripped it apart, the liquid splattering around his mouth. 

"I'm trying to get Todoroki to-" 

**"Have you lost your fucking marbles!!! He's got FIRE IZUKU!!!"**

Izuku was about to reply, the anger and adrenaline pumping through his veins, only for a sound to interrupt both of them, both of them turning their head back towards Shoto, just in time for a mass of ice utterly and completely encase them. 

Not encase them like Todoroki had done with Sero in Todoroki's previous round. 

Instead, the ice-encased Izuku and Venom completely in the center of a massive block of ice. 

Izuku was utterly and completely immobilized, oxygen cut off. He panicked. Then he began to  **move.** He put everything he had, every muscle in his arms to just move, force them apart. 

He could feel the crack of the ice, as the block began to break. Then in one burst, it  **broke** apart, huge pieces of ice sent flying. 

As his arms got free, he slammed his hands down on the ice below, freeing his lower body as the ice broke apart. 

Then he staggered out of the frozen block. 

He had to jump to dodge another wave of ice sent his way but compared to the previous attacks, this one was downright sluggish. 

Todoroki had put a lot more energy than he should have in the previous last-ditch attack while Izuku was distracted. 

Now, the boy was flat out shaking and had obvious troubles not just falling over and hugging himself trying to keep warm. And yet, he didn't make so much as a single speck of fire. He could so easily banish the frost, yet he forced himself not to. 

"Todoroki, y-" 

His arm shot upwards, completely unprompted, and a line slammed straight into Shoto's chest. Then it wrenched sideways, sending the weak and limp Shoto over the edge. 

Silence followed for a moment. 

Then… 

"Todoroki Shoto is out of bounds. Midoriya Izuku is the winner." Midnight announced. 

All around, cheers from the tribunes. But Izuku couldn't focus on any of them. He felt… Annoyed. Angry. At the end result of winning against someone who wasn't taking the match seriously. Against Todoroki for holding back in the first place, and at Venom, for cutting him off as he tried to make Shoto fight with his all. 

He could feel that Venom was also brimming with anger. 

At him specifically. 

\---

**"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!"**

After winning, Izuku had gone over to the nearest toilets to get some privacy for what he could tell was coming. 

"What is wrong with me? Why did you cut me off like that?" 

**"BECAUSE YOU WERE TRYING TO MAKE HIM SUMMON FUCKING FIRE AND FLAMES!!!"**

"I was trying to get him to take this match seriously! To take this entire tournament seriously!" 

**"Who the hell cares about how seriously he was taking this thing! The POINT of this tournament is to WIN, not to get our enemies to work out their issues to become more effective fighters!"**

Venom's face was right up in front of Izuku, shouting at him, with his long rows of teeth at full display as he shouted at Izuku with that voice that sounded so much like his own, yet so different. 

"What is the point of winning this, if the rest of the tournament isn't taking this seriously? We'd just be playing games!" 

**"WE ARE PLAYING GAMES HERE IZUKU! This is a fucking SPORTS TOURNAMENT, not a REAL fight! But even if it wasn't, this sort of shit is the kind of stuff that would get you KILLED in a real battle!"**

Izuku did not back down. Maybe it was the supernaturally strong adrenaline that was still pumping through his veins, or maybe it was that this did genuinely matter to him. Whatever it was, he refused to yield on the point to the symbiote. 

The two of them were interrupted, however, when the door opened. Both his and Venom's heads snapped around towards it as Ibara from 1-B walked in, wearing a calm, but annoyed expression. 

**"What do you want?"** Venom snapped at her. 

Ibara, seemingly not intimidated by the alien, merely raised an eyebrow as she replied, her voice calm. 

"It is not my place to get between a man and the quirk which God has blessed him with. However, I must ask you to vacate these premises. This facility is for those of the female gender, and you are not one such. Thus I must ask you to leave immediately, lest I can only assume you are a perverted man who cares not for the privacy of Women, like the sinful, perverted dwarf of your class. 

Izuku blinked. Then he did a double-take, as he took in her words, and the anger suddenly became replaced with shame and embarrassment. He nodded, and walked past her, out the door, took a look, and saw that indeed this was a female bathroom.

He had been so pissed he hadn't even noticed. 

As he walked down the corridor, he began to calm down, the adrenaline reaching it's end. He was still angry at Venom, but as he thought back, the sheer volume of it seemed… Disproportionate. 

It wasn't like Venom didn't have a reason for doing what he had, by cutting the fight short. 

But in the moment, he had just felt… Rage. Complete and total rage. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God all-mighty this took longer than i expected.
> 
> I was really hoping to get to cap off 2020 with the fight between Izuku and Mei, but alas, that did not happen.
> 
> Anyhow, i hope you guys liked this chapter. Next chapter will be about Black Cat, Second of her Name Vs The Immortal Lizardy. it will come out sometime in february.


	29. Blood and Acid

As Izuku got back to the seats, he was given a lot of encouragement by his fellow students. Pats on the back, congratulations. 

He supposed he should feel happy about beating Todoroki, but the fact was that he just didn't. 

Beating someone who was holding back just didn't feel right with him. 

As he sat down in the seat that had recently been occupied by Mina(Who had headed down to prep for the next bout, which would be her against the girl from 1-B) Uraraka was strangely absent. 

When he asked about that, the rest of the class just shrugged, saying she had left with Mina. 

Nobody seemed to know more than that, so As Mei and Ibara stepped into the ring, he sat alone, and in silence to watch her and her ever cheery grin. Venom was still pissed at him and keeping his silence, so he wasn't even getting g comments from. Him. It was strange to watch one of the bouts with nobody at his side to talk to. Not Uraraka, not Mina, not Venom, and not Tenya. 

So as he sat there, he instead took in the sight of the girl whose powers let her summon forth a torrentine of powerful green plant vines and the girl with the robot arms. 

Now, she was still wearing the steampunk looking gloves, but she was now gripping the strange tube she had holstered to her belt, in her right hand, and brandishing it like it was actually a sword. 

Said tube had a cable going straight down into the harness around her waist, so whatever it was, it was clearly powered by the same battery the arms were. 

"AND NOW, WE HAVE THE BATTLE OF THE LADY OCTOPUS OF THE SUPPORT DEPARTMENT, WITH HER SINISTER ARMS AND LIGHTNING GAUNTLETS, AGAINST HER STANDS THE THORNY SAINT OF 1-B, HERE TO SEE GOD'S WILL DONE! WHO SHALL BE VICTORIOUS? LET US SEE… READY… SET… GO!!!" 

Izuku was watching Mei closely as the battle began, and with his improved sight, he could see her push a button on her belt as a storm of vines shot forward against her. 

Then, from the tip of the tube, green, burning light exploded, extending into a long, narrow blade of pulsing energy, nearly 2 meters long. 

He blinked in shock, as Mei brought the fucking lightsaber in a sideways sweep, cleaving through the vines with such heat that not only did they instantly sever where they hit, but they ignited the vines themselves in green flames. 

As Ibara recoiled from having her hair being set on fire, Mei quickly pushed herself back with her mechanical arms, easily avoiding the cut-off, burning parts of the vines, which hit the floor before burning themselves out to ash. 

As Ibara was busy smothering the flames by slamming them down into the ground, Mei began on her sales pitch for this round. 

"SUCH STRONG, POWERFUL VINES IBARA! BUT ALAS, PLANTS BURN! AND FEW THINGS BURN AS BRIGHT AS A SWORD MADE OF SEETHING, SUPERHEATED, OTHERWORLDLY ENERGY! BEHOLD THE POWER OF GEORGE LUCAS OLD SCIFI WEAPON BROUGHT TO LIFE INTO A REAL, PRACTICAL WEAPON IN THE FORM OF LUKE 23.4!"

Then, from below vines shot up from all around her! In front, behind, and to the sides, preparing to encase her in a cocoon, far more thorough than the way she had roped up Kaminari. 

Then, the blade exploded far, far further in length, goes straight down sideways into the ground, turning the cement to molten glass the moment it touched it. 

Mei then swiped the blade from one side of the arena to the other. The Vines still shot up, but were now obviously powerless, falling on top of Mei with no energy behind them, as Mei had severed them from their master down under the ground. 

Mei quickly disentangled herself from the wines with her arms and went on selling her new sword. 

"AND UNLIKE THE FICTIONAL PRODUCT THIS WEAPON TAKES INSPIRATION FROM, THIS WEAPON DOES NOT JUST COME IN ONE SIZE! INSTEAD, IT CAN BE MODIFIED TO BE ANYWHERE FROM 30 CENTIMETERS TO 10 METERS LONG! FAR, FAR MORE PRACTICAL TO USE, BOTH AS A WEAPON AND AS A TOOL."

As she talked, she did something at her belt, making the energy blade shrink down into a much more practical length. 

This time the reaction was stunned silence from the entire arena, as everyone stared at the green blade, which was now about as long as the old Sci-fi weapon had been in the return of the Jedi. 

Izuku was not a star wars fan, nor was he particularly familiar with any of the many, many different incarnations of Star Wars, but even he felt a certain level of awe watching the fluid way Mei turned the ground to glass and the vines to burning cinders. 

"WITH THIS, I HAVE NOW BROUGHT THE LIGHTSABER FIRST BROUGHT TO REAL LIFE BY HACKSMITH INDUSTRIES IN THE 21TH CENTURY TO PERFECTION!" 

And with that, she launched herself forward using the awesome power of her arms. 

He wasn't sure what Mei had assumed Ibara would do, but the vine girl did not back away, nor shrink in fear. Instead, she did the exact same thing, launching herself forward using her vines, though hers was much more controlled than Mei's jump. 

Then they smashed together into a flurry of green and Grey tendrils, that made it really hard to see what was going on. 

Izuku instantly understood what Ibara had done. She had forced this into a close-quarters fight, where Mei could not use the sword to just cleave away at her plants, and sure enough, the blade when out, Mei apparently having retracted it. 

Of course, getting into fisticuffs with Mei also meant exposing yourself to those gauntlets of hers. 

Sure enough, with another blinding flash and a "CRACK" of thunder, the mass exploded into bright red light. 

Ibara however, did not immediately go down, having seemingly used the same kind of grounding shield as she had used against Kaminari in their previous bout. 

3 more blasts followed in the tangled mess, as metal and plants fought for dominance until finally, a metal tendril closed around Ibara's arm.

Then, To Izuku's complete shock, Mei brought up her gauntleted hand to said arm. 

Ibara screamed as red light coursed through the arm in a shower of sparks, then through her body! 

Then, she fell still, the mess of greenery immediately stopping to move. 

"Winner Hatsune Mei!" Midnight announced as she walked over to where Mei was currently disentangling herself from Ibara's vines. 

As Midnight called for some help from the robots to cut Ibara's vines away enough to easily move, Mei began walking away from the arena, one of her arms had completely blown it's fuses, and being carried by two of the others. 

Like before, the end of the bout produced a hell of a lot of noise from people, as everyone began chatting about what had just happened, and how nifty her invention had been. 

Izuku however, instead looked at her in silence, a level of fear pulsing through his body. He was going to have to face everything Mei had in her next round. And as he watched, he noticed that to her harness, she still had that metal ball attached. The final of the inventions that she had refused to leave behind during their talk. 

If the tube was Luke, the gauntlets Mikasa, then that would probably be… He thought back… Eren. 

How had she described it? It would just kill everything around it? Great. That probably meant she had yet to use her absolute best trump card. 

\---

Mina had gone to the preparation room expecting that the fight between Ibara and Mei to be over quickly. 

Instead, she sat there for a good twenty minutes just waiting, before she was finally called out to her fight with Tokage from 1-B.

As she stepped out into the sunlight, she glanced over up at the stadium, to the place where the students sat. 

She saw that neither Tenya nor Todoroki had come back from the infirmary, nor had Uraraka come back after going to visit Shoto after he lost. 

The rest of her friends were all there though, including Izuku at the very end of the stands. She gave a big grin and a wave. 

She was about to look for her mom, but she didn't find her in the stands before she was up on the arena, and face to face with Tokage. 

Her opponent was also grinning, but unlike Mina, she had a mouth of sharp teeth, just like Kirishima. For some reason she had her jacket fully open, revealing just a sports bra underneath. Like Izuku, she had discarded her shoes for some reason, though in her case, she wasn't even wearing socks. 

"So you're Black Cat's daughter eh?" 

"Yep."

"Well then little kitty cat, I'm afraid you're gonna have a very bad time. You might just say… You've got some terribly bad luck."

At that she raised her hand up in a fist, which she unclenched as it turned green, and scaly, her fingertips becoming sharp claws. 

"Wait… Was that supposed to be a cat pun? That… That was really stretching it."

"Really? I thought it was Purrfect."

Mina was about to reply but was cut off by Present Mic. 

"AND IN THE PENULTIMATE BOUT OF THE SECOND ROUNDS OF THIS TOURNAMENT, WE HAVE ASHIDO MINA IN ON CORNER! THE DAUGHTER OF THE LEGENDARY BLACK CAT, THIS PINK LITTLE JAGUAR SHALL NOW HAVE TO FACE THE MIGHT, OF THE TOKAGE SETSUNA, THE FLYING, GREEN LIZARD OF 1-B! WHO SHALL PREVAIL IN THIS BOUT OF THE JUNGLE? LET'S FIND OUT… RIGHT NOW! START!!!"

Mina moved the moment the T sound reached her ears. 

In one second she had closed the gap between the two of them and hit Tsukage with a strong hook to the side. Not nearly as hard as she could hit, but more than enough to-

Her entire side exploded into red as Mina's punch ripped out her entire side, bones, and blood and muscle flying everywhere. 

Mina froze in complete shock, her hand covered in blood, absolutely horrified at what she had just made happened

That turned out to be a mistake, however, as a green fist slammed into the side of her head, sending her flying.

She almost went out of bounds, but instinct drilled into her made her slam her hand down into the ground, acid letting her bore her fingers for a grip hold. 

She as quickly got to her feet, still shaken, she could hear horrified gasps and other such sounds from all around the arena. 

Tokage was standing where she had been standing when Mina hit her, making a comical face of horror and despair. 

"Oh noooo…. You have killed meee…. I'm going to dieee…."

Her lung was completely gone, lying in a hundred pieces on the floor, making for a macabre sight, but her comically over the top acting made it pretty clear she wasn't exactly in pain. 

That and the stinging in her cheek from where she'd been hit replaced Mina's horror, with annoyance and anger. 

"You got a healing factor don't you?" 

"Awww… I was hoping you'd play along a bit longer pussy cat."

Her lung began growing back, sinew, bone, and muscle growing back in a few seconds, though her jacket and pants were now absolutely covered in blood. Tokage didn't seem to mind. 

"Gotta say though pussy cat, that was some really fast movement there. Almost too fast to be legal. You might just say, that you're… A cheetah."

Mina's next attack was a sweep kick, sweeping Tokage's legs out from under her. Literally, as they exploded into a red mess of blood and bone, the moment she hit them. 

Mina had planned to follow that up by grabbing her upper body and flinging it out of the arena. In fact, she had her hands around Tokage's jacket before gravity had even set in. 

Only instead of being flung, her upper body remained firmly in place as the jacket ripped apart instead. 

This time, Mina avoided the follow-up punch and was halfway across the arena in the blink of an eye. 

Tokage remained standing exactly where she was, her legs having turned to a complete, non-existent mess, whole her disembodied torso remained floating in the air. 

Right… She had done something similar before, hadn't she? She had disconnected her hand and kept it floating to help Bakugou in the cavalry battle right? 

As she was standing there, Tokage began regrowing her legs, in a similar fashion to how she'd regrow her lung. 

Regeneration. 

What had her mom said about those? That you beat them by either exhausting their stamina, capturing them in a closed space, or freezing them whole. 

The second and third weren't gonna happen. 

And that left… 

"I don't suppose you have a limit on that regeneration."

"Sure do pussy cat. 10-20 minutes of non-stop regeneration will slow it down drastically, and eventually, I'll be immobilized unless I get something to eat."

"... You're… You're just telling me this? Just like that?" 

"Sure. After all…" Her body began to transform. "I'm ending this in the next two."

Her skin turned green, scales reknitting over skin, the backside of her pants ripped as a long, powerful tail sprouted from her waist. Her face twisted, a snout forming, her sharp teeth rearranging themselves into a maw like that of a dragon. 

Her eyes changed, the white going out of them, replaced by blood red, her pupils shifting and turning until they were nothing more than slits. When she was finished, she had gained about 40 centimeters in height and had become way bulkier. 

When she spoke again, her voice had gone down several levels, though Mina could still tell that it was Tokage. 

_ "Now, my unfortunate friend… Let's go." _

Then she burst forward. Mina ducked as Tokage launched a sideways kick right at her, then grabbed her tail as she followed the kick up with using her tail as a whip. 

Then she grabbed the tail and yanked, expecting it to either come loose or give her a good way to throw Tokage's body. 

Instead, a detached hand once more hit her, this time in the back of the head. 

Mina saw stars and she slammed into the ground, and she felt a crushing grip above her. 

"End of the line kitty ca-" 

Mina surrounded her arm in acid, and swiped around In a circle, searing Tokage in half, the lower body, and arms dropping like a sack of potatoes. 

Then, now on her back, she headbutted the woman right in her snout. 

She felt a sickening "crunch" as bones and nose broke beneath her forehead. 

Then staggered to her feet, and once more put distance between her and Tokage. 

It was only then that she realized her entire body was coated in blood. 

Holy shit this had gotten really fucking disturbing, really disturbingly fast. 

"Not so easy is it kitty cat?" The lizard woman said in a cheerful tone. 

"I've seen that reaction before. Everyone thinks, I'll just stall while doing as much damage as I can, but in almost every case I've ever seen, they always get that same reaction once the blood really gets going."

As she talked, the disembodied upper body regrew it's lost parts, a new couple of arms sprouting into being in a bloody, gory mess, while a new set of legs sprouted from a regrown, now naked lower body. 

As if to emphasize the point, Tokage slammed her newly regrown foot down on her former lower half, and it exploded into a mess of blood, bones, and broken sinew. 

Mina wanted to throw up. 

She almost did in fact, but she barely managed to keep it down. 

\---

Holy shit, this had taken a sudden turn to the macabre. 

Izuku watched in complete shock as below, one of his closest friends fought against the seemingly invincible Lizard woman. 

In terms of speed and offensive power, Mina was clearly superior. Tokage was strong enough to crack the concrete, but Mina's acid, her own strength, and a much higher speed than the lizard meant she was making literal mincemeat out of the woman with every bout, not having to hold back at all, making an enormous difference. 

Unfortunately for her, brute force wasn't going to win this fight. Tokage just completely regrew any damage Mina dealt her, almost immediately. 

That, along with her ability to just split herself apart and control her body mid-air, also made a massive difference, as once in a while, she managed to get in a lucky blow. 

A scratch, a punch, a kick. 

It was obvious that her plan was just to wear Mina out. And that plan was working. 

However, Izuku could see that it wasn't her physical damage that was taking the biggest toll. No, that would be to her mind, as Mina was clearly not taking being dumped in blood, and having to fight over literal guts on the ground. 

She was going into shock, he could see that clear enough. Her entire body was shaking in a way that didn't really line up with the damage she had taken so far. Her face was a mask of someone who was trying desperately to hold it together. But it was the eyes that really sold the story. 

Mina's black and golden eyes, usually calm and sly, were now frantic, wild, desperate. Accentuating that, she was panting, hard and repeatedly in quick bursts. 

As he stood by the rails, looking down, hands clenched around the caved in rail just as he had with Uraraka, Izuku somehow managed to work through all the horrified comments and whispers around the stadium to focus exclusively upon the arena, where Tokage once more managed to get in a hit, this time, closing around Mina's left and with a bite. 

\---

Mina did not scream. Instead, she punched Tokage in the face so hard, that her jaw was ripped clean off.

The pain in her arm was striking, then went dull. 

As she once more put distance between the two of them, she almost slipped at a set of intestines but caught herself. 

She got back into stance, that boxing stance her mom had drilled into her so diligently that it had become part of her blood. Arms up, to guard, ready to punch, or launch a surprise kick. 

The smell was all-consuming. It was like the blood was seeping directly into her mind. It was everywhere, filthy, rotten, all-consuming. 

Her eyes darted down on herself, where she was absolutely drenched in the foul, thick red liquid. Then she caught herself, and her eyes went up again, to look at her foe. 

In comparison to her shaking, panting state, Tokage was relaxed, calm, completely in control. In spite of the fact that all the blood that was covering her, was her own blood, not Mina's. 

"You've never seen a dead body at all, have you Kitty cat?" 

Mina just shook her head. She didn't want to talk. She didn't want to give the blood more chances to seep into her mouth. 

"I'll admit that's kinda surprising. Considering who your mom is, I kinda expected her to really go to town with her training. But I guess Japan isn't filled with dead corpses anyone can stumble unto."

Mina didn't answer, just holding her stance. It wasn't that she was physically tired, quite, on the contrary, the beating she had taken now was nothing compared to the harder training sessions she'd had with her mom. It was just that she felt… Numb. All over. It wasn't just her mental state either, her entire body was beginning to feel numb. 

The lizard grinned.

"That numbness, by the way, isn't just shock. My bite is poisonous you see."

Mina startled. 

"It's not fatal by any means, but you're soon gonna be feeling Really bad. You might say you'll be feeling… Catatonic."

Normally, Mina would probably have groaned or rolled her eyes at that pun, a good-hearted smile on her face, or she might have made it herself. She liked puns. Usually. 

Right now though, all she could focus on was that feeling of dread, of fear bubbling in her stomach. The fear of understanding she was about to lose.

that was bad. Really, really bad. 

She had had the lesson that you could never, ever give in to fear. You had to face fear head-on. Because the moment you gave in to that fear, that was the end. 

How the hell was she gonna get out of this? 

What… What was the conditions of victory again? 

It was getting hard to think. To focus. 

And all the while, that smell still permeated through her nose, digging into her mind.

What the hell did she do now? 

"No response? Don't tell me poison is working THAT fast? Well, don't worry, you'll get to deal with it in the sick room soon enough. I just gotta throw you out of the ring first. 

Right, throw her out of the ring. 

That was the only way to win. 

How the hell could she do that, when her enemy could literarily keep her body parts frozen in midair?

Once more Tokage sprung forward, this time aiming at her with an overhead slam of her tail that cracked the ground beneath where Mina had just been and sent blood covered stone flying. 

A claw shot out, and once more, Mina burned it straight off. And just as several times before, another green fist slammed into her from behind, knocking the wind out of her and sending her flying. 

This time she only barely managed to avoid going out of bounds. 

She forced herself to her feet, once more turning to face the green lizard woman, who nonchalantly regrew her severed arm. 

Mina glanced down at the now lifeless Han. Then she froze. 

A solution shot into her head. An obvious solution. Having now seen the way forward, she acted immediately, grabbing on to the chance to end this, with all she had. 

Mina shot forward, with a speed that would have made even her mother at her peak proud. 

Tokage, nonchalantly, brought forward a hook, which hit an arm covered in acid, turning it to a bloody paste. 

But the actual attack was another hit in the back, making Mina scream, as sharp claws dug into her.

She didn't stop though. Instead, she grit her teeth, and brought her acid covered hand forward in another swipe, once more cleaving Tokage in half. 

The reptile sighed. 

Then, before she could regenerate her lower half to replace the now lifeless lower half, Mina grabbed that lower half, and with a throw, she sent the lower body flying out of the arena. 

Silence followed. 

Then "Tokage Setsuna is out of bounds. The winner is Ashido Mina."

Tokage just stood there dumbfounded, as Mina stood there, panting, still absolutely covered and caked in blood. 

"...Shit. Holy shit, I should have seen that. Huh. Oh well. Congrats on the win Ashido." She gave a wave, and a reptile grin, then simply turned and walked out of the ring towards the exit. 

\---

Mina made it 9 steps inside the corridor, before she fell to her knees, and began throwing up. Hard.

She kept puking up her guts for about half a minute. Then, a short break, before she kept puking. 

As she tried to recover, just breathing, she felt a hand in her shoulder. Weakly looking up, she saw a kind, womanly face, long white locks going down around it. 

Her mom didn't say anything, just offering her a hand to help her get up. 

She took it and didn't argue when the much taller woman put an arm under hers to help her walk. 

"Let's go get you cleaned up, then straight on to recovery girl."

"Y-yeah…"

As they walked through the corridors, her mom continued. 

"You did really well out there. Most people would not have managed to hold it in before they got out of the arena." 

Mina was about to reply, when Izuku came around the corner with some speed, clearly having run down here. 

He had an absolutely worried look on his face, and Mina felt blood rush to her cheeks, despite it all. 

Great. Just what she needed. To be seen by Izuku, covered in blood, weak, and carried by her mom. 

Izuku absolutely froze as he saw her, then 3 seconds later he blinked, only then realizing that Mina wasn't alone. 

Before he could say anything though, her mom cut him off. 

"I'll handle her kid, she needs a shower, and that's not something you can help with. You can talk to her after your next match, speaking off, you should probably go prep for that. I don't think the next fight will last that long."

Izuku's mouth was open for a moment like he really wanted to object. But he thankfully didn't, and just replied with a nod, then, stuttering telling Mina she did a great job, before finally moving on. 

She could feel his eyes on her back all the way until they passed the corner though. 

"... Thanks."

She simply grunted and remained silent until they reached the room for the showers. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really looking forward to the final two matches of this tournament. like, its been fun to read, but man did this thing baloon up from my original ideas for it.


	30. Those Who Hate

Mei worked with a speed she hadn't had in years, replacing every single broken and busted component of Flo with a level of precision and certainty that could only have been attained through countless hours of tinkering and building. 

The speed at which she worked was something she had only experienced once before in her life. A mad mix of brilliance, insanity, and diligence that had come over her not long after she was first told she had maybe 3-4 years left to live. 

She had been utterly desperate back then. Desperate to make some kind of mark on the world before she died. Terrified that she would become nothing more than a footnote in history, not worth being remembered by anyone. 

That had been a fruitful period, full of innovations, and discoveries. But it had also been the foolish madness of a child, who had jumped from invention to invention, without fine-tuning every single one to perfection. 

She had created a lot of babies she was proud of back then, but she had come a long way in 2 years. 

For one, she had been forced to realize that she needed to focus her efforts if she was to achieve her goals. The feverish madness had passed and given way to a more… Methodical direction. 

Today, however… That mad brilliance began to sneak back in through the cracks. 

**He** had awoken something in her that she hadn't truly felt in years. Pure, seething hate. 

She had never stopped hating him, not for one second through the many years since he had come into her life and obliterated everything. But actually seeing him again… was something else. 

She wanted him to  **Hurt** . Hurt as much as she did all the time, anytime she wasn't on painkillers. She wanted him to  **Suffer.** She wanted to strip him of any chance of achieving his dreams and becoming the Victor of this tournament. She wanted him to  **Scream** as he broke, before the eyes of all the world. 

Everything had become secondary compared to that, one singular goal. 

And she had the perfect weapon for achieving that beautiful goal. 

She had Eren. 

She would beat him black and blue to maximize the effects, then she would  **destroy** him. 

\---

Black Cat had been right in a way. The actual fight between Kirishima and Uraraka was very short, not even lasting a minute before Uraraka ended it. 

Actually cleaning up the mess left behind by the previous match, however, took a whooping 15 minutes. 

That had given him a lot of extra time to think. However, rather than being able to focus on the match, he had instead spent the entire time worrying about Mina. 

He had been so worried in fact, that he pretty much had been unable to focus on said match before Kirishima finally went out to fight, then lost in quick succession. 

Venom finally reemerged as he finally walked out of the preparation room. 

**"Time to finally put that bitch down Eh, Izuku?"**

He didn't answer. Right now he honestly didn't care that much about the upcoming match. He was way too worried about Mina. 

His one attempt to sense her emotions hadn't helped with his worry, given the girl was intensely filled with nausea and pain. 

And so, it was as he honestly didn't care much about the match he was walking into, that he walked out into the sunlight once more. 

This time to face Someone who hated him more than anything. 

As he stepped up unto the arena, Hatsune Mei stepped up at the opposite end of the arena, still wearing that same, eternal smile. 

For a moment, they just stood there in silence, looking at each other. 

Izuku with nervousness, and the fact he wasn't fully invested in this fight, despite his previous proclamations that if you stepped up into this arena, you should give it your all. 

Mei, with a look of true madness in her eyes, hidden by a set of thick Goggles and a fake, eerie smile. Around her hands, she wore the lightning gauntlets, and in her right hand, she held her unlit sword. Up and around her body, her big, tentacle-like arms moved, like snapping snake's, just waiting for the battle to start. If one hadn't seen the previous bout, one would be forgiven for not knowing that 

And fastened to her belt on the back, was a small, metal sphere, it's surface covered with lines, and a black, circular button. 

Midnight, unlike most of the other fights, did not look eager to see this match start. Her eyes went from Izuku to Mei, and back again. 

"So, just so you kids know, if this begins to turn into a bloodbath like the last one, we're ending it early. Just thought I'd let you know that now."

"That's fine." Mei said In a lackadaisical tone. "Midori is pretty durable. Why, you could try and cave his head in with a wrench, and it wouldn't even crack his skull. Maybe give him a horrible, painful concussion sure, but he'd walk it off. As for me, I once walked off being hit by a speeding minivan."

"... You're kinda creepy kid, anyone ever tell you that?" 

"263 people so far that I know."

**"We cannot imagine why that would be."**

Mei didn't answer, instead fixing her hidden eyes at Izuku's, as Present Mic began his pre-battle speech. 

"AND NOW, FOR A MATCH BETWEEN THESE TWO, THAT HAS INTRIGUED MOST PEOPLE TODAY AS THEY HAVE CLASHED AND ALLIED UPON THE FIELD TO REACH THIS SUMMIT OF CHAMPIONS!" 

"IN ONE CORNER, WE HAVE IZUKU MIDORIYA, THE SPIDERMAN OF 1-A! FRESH OFF HIS VICTORY OVER THE BOY MOST PEOPLE PEGGED AS THE FAVORITE TO BE VICTOR OF THIS YEAR'S TOURNAMENT!" 

"AND IN THE OTHER CORNER, WE HAVE HATSUNE MEI, AN UNLIKELY RISING STAR WHO SMASHED WAY UNTO THE SCENE, AND CRUSHED THE HOPES OF ALL THOSE WHO HAS OPPOSED HER TODAY, NOW STANDING READY TO UNLEASH HER MECHANICAL TENDRILS AGAINST THE BOY SHE SO DETESTS! WHO WILL BE VICTORIOUS FOR THIS BATTLE! WHO WILL WIN, AND GO ON TO REACH THE FINAL BOUT! WHICH RIVAL SHALL CONQUER?!"

"3!"

"2!!"

"1!!!"

"GO!!!!!"

The moment the g from the word go reached their ears, both contestants began their opening gambit. 

Izuku was much, much faster, and with way better reaction time though, so even as Mei brought up her hand to blast him with lighting, Izuku slammed both his hands down into the ground and ripped out chunks of cement the size of grapefruit. 

One chunk of that cement was immediately sent flying, straight into the path of the lightning bolt, slamming into it, and taking the entire thing, making the substance explode into chunks. 

Izuku had hoped that it would slam into the gauntlet and break it, but he took the opportunity the cement chunk had granted him to make a leap towards Mei to cut their distance short. 

Mei, clearly expecting this, brought her tentacles forth, and Izuku barely avoided being grabbed by them, as he slammed into her. 

His left hand shot up and closed around the lightsaber, and with a "Crunch" he broke it in his fist. One horrible device down. 

His right hand shot out to-

"CRACK!" 

Searing hot pain shot through both Izuku's entire body, as well as the black skin that was Venom. 

Izuku screamed in pain, and Venom screamed inside his head. 

Instinctually, he lashed out, and with his right hand, he brained Mei across the head with the piece of artificial rock, so hard the chunk splintered to pieces upon the impact. 

A metal arm shot down and closed around his midsection, then, harshly, threw him across the arena. 

For a second, Izuku just lay there, then he forced himself back up, and got into a fighting position. 

Over on the other side, Mei was also getting back in her feet, her head having a small, bleeding cut where Izuku had slammed a rock into it. 

**-Break the gauntlets, NOW!-**

Izuku didn't need to be told that, having felt their bite himself just now. 

Once more he took the offensive, a webline slamming into Mei's harness, and a mighty pull sending her through the air, in Izuku's direction. 

Halfway there, however, one of the arms snapped out a knife, and cut straight through the web, while another slammed into the ground ahead of her. 

The other two arms, however, shot forward straight at Izuku, who just barely managed to avoid them by moving sideways. 

As the tentacles followed, Izuku danced around them, and once more, he launched himself straight at Mei. 

He landed straight in front of her, and this time, both the gauntlets were immediately leveled at him. 

He dodged backwards, not by jumping, but instead slamming his upper body backwards, and bending his knees, while keeping them firmly attached to the ground, making him look like the world's best contour artist with how flexible he was. 

His hands slammed up and around the gauntlets, and just like he had with the lightsaber, he broke them apart with nothing more than a super-powered grip. 

This time though, he had done so with metal gauntlets that had massive amounts of electricity running through them. A very, very bad idea. 

He and Mei both screamed as red lightning slammed into and through their bodies. 

Around her, the arms immediately went silent and crashed to the ground. 

After about 10 seconds of burning seething pain, however, a click was heard from the belt, and the lightning was cut off. 

Mei had fallen on top of Izuku as she screamed, and for a second they just lay there panting in pain. 

The black suit, that had pulsed and bubbled, and broken apart under the lightning, reknit itself over Izuku's skin once more, and a black hand shot up and around Mei's throat. 

"Seems… Your arms aren't built to handle lightning. You should really look into that."

Mei's hands shot up, trying to break apart Izuku's grip, but as she herself had said, she did not possess superhuman strength, so that was a fruitless errand. 

"I… Did… Re… Re…boot… 4."

The arms, which were programmed to immediately cut off from the harness at the first sign of foreign electricity, immediately came to Life once more. 

"Oh" was all Izuku got out before two arms snapped around him with titanic force. 

Then, he was ripped up from the ground into the air, and as Mei was lifted up from the ground by the other two tentacles, he was SLAMMED down into the ground with such force, that he made a crater with his own body. 

The blow knocked all the wind out of him, but it wasn't the end. 

Instead, he was hoisted into the air again, and his body made another human-shaped crater into the ground. 

The tentacles tried to wrench him up again for a third time, but this time he was saved by Venom. The black suit detached from the body at the spots where the tentacles had closed around and the back of his body was kept firmly on the ground. 

Thus the arms ripped themselves up while sliding off from Izuku's body, leaving the teenager still in the crater, from which he barely managed to wrench himself out off and move to the side before a tentacle slammed straight down on where his head had just been. 

As he put distance between himself and Mei, Izuku groaned, his body really hurting, first from the electrical energy that had burned through it, then by being pummeled into the ground. 

Mei for her part seemed similarly beaten up. 

She had seemingly shaken off the head blow from earlier, but she had handled the electrical currents way worse than he had, judging by the shaking of her body. 

The fact she used the tentacles to keep herself off the ground was a pretty telltale of that. 

"Clever. I should have seen that as a way you could escape my metal grasp."

Her face, still keeping that damned smile, twisted again. 

"It won't work next time though. I didn't want to risk breaking the claws of my babies hands by slamming them directly into the ground beneath you. This time, I'll crush the grip completely around you."

"Won't that break them?"

"Not if I just pummel you with the other ones instead, no."

Mei prepared herself to launch at him again. Then, with impressive speed, she did just that. 

One more Izuku sent a line at her. 

But not to wrench her out of the air. 

Instead, the line slammed into her Google, coating the glass completely. 

Mei's movement immediately suffered, and rather than landing smoothly, one of the arms she was using to land instead went into the ground at an awards angle, making her stumble. 

Right into Izuku's fist. 

Izuku took her straight in the jaw with an uppercut. But because she was locked to the ground by her own mechanical arms, she wasn't sent flying, but instead, she was lifted off the ground by the punch, then remained there, right in front of Izuku. 

The next punch hit her in the left ribs, making a knuckle shaped dent in the metal, as Izuku could feel the impact of the force he had used. And if he couldn't, the spit Mei harked up above him, certainly illustrated the point. 

Izuku did land a second liver blow at her, but this time, he managed to really make the punch hit, as he was sent flying by a metal arm slamming into him sideways. 

This time though, he didn't land skidding unto the stone, instead rolling around the ground, then stopping into a hunched over position, and then bouncing back unto his feet. 

Mei by comparison was hunched over in pain. One arm's claws closed around the gauntlet, and ripped it off, and threw it to the side. 

Mei gasped in pain, then with a start, she moved up, her arms slamming into the ground, moving her to face Izuku. 

Izuku, who had been fully prepared, flinched at her expression. 

The fake, playful smile was gone, leaving something feral, and primal in it's place. Mei's eyes were wild, her pupils had changed, the circle around her pupils having shrunken so much, that now it looked like a perfect, small circle around the tiny dots that were her eyes centers.

And they burned. Burned with hatred, with a loathing that Izuku would have been pretty sure he could actually, physically feel. 

As she stood there, her feet barely touching the ground, and just panting from the pain, Izuku was overwhelmed by the feeling of complete, and total hate, that this girl had towards him. 

He had asked before, but the question just came out of his lips again without him being able to stop the words. 

"Why…? Why do you hate me so much?" 

"Because… You took  **everything** from me… You… Pathetic... four-limbed excuse for a  **Spider!!!** " 

Then with massive speed, 3 of the arms ripped themselves up from the ground, and just Izuku had started the match, they threw cement pieces straight at Izuku with such speed, that when he failed to dodge one of them and it hit him in the arm, the piece tuned to a dust cloud as the hit snapped Izuku around in a circle. 

He cried in pain, but he forced himself back to face Mei… then he began running to the side as piece after piece of concrete flew through the air, all aiming straight at him. 

Mei had taken his opening gambit, and improved upon it, as piece after piece flew as the arms ripped, and then threw them with amazing speed. 

It was a testimony of his reflexes and agility that he managed to dodge them. 

Finally, though, another line of black shot out. 

This time, however, an arm shot up and took the webline instead of it hitting Mei between the eyes. 

Then Izuku was wretched off his feet and sent flying straight at Mei. 

Was almost hit by one of the arms, but he kicked it with enormous force, such that it was sent flying, the metal dented. 

Unfortunately for him, two other arms buried themselves into his sides with force, slamming all the air out of him. 

Then, the third he had sent flying hit him strain in the face. 

He flew down and sideways, and this time he did indeed skid across the ground, only Venom's grip on the ground preventing him from going out of bounds. 

He forced himself to his feet, both his lungs burning. 

**-Two ribs cracked on the left, 1 on the other side-**

Izuku winced as the pain really began to set in. It wasn't anything compared to the pain he'd experienced when Rhino caved in his ribs, but damn it was bad. 

He felt like both his lungs were in a fire, on top of a ringing in his ears from that last blow. 

On the other side of the arena, Mei was making her way towards him, though this time she went slowly obviously not wanting to put herself into the air again. 

Izuku could feel blood on his lips. That could not be a good thing. 

For a moment, panic began to set in. Then the adrenaline really began to flow.

The pain began to fade, though not go away completely. 

His mind began to kick into overdrive, as Mei continued towards him. 

He considered his options, what to do now. 

Then, he decided that it was time. 

A black line formed from His hand, then, with all his might, he brought it back, then forward like a whip. 

One of Mei's arms immediately went to catch it.

Then, in a burst of whining machinery, a white scythe-like blade, punched straight through it. 

Mei halted immediately. Then her other arms shot up to disentangle the scythe-like tooth sticking into the busted arm, only for it to disintegrate into nothing. 

As Izuku brought his second shy the forward, Mei did not catch it, instead, she forced her arms out of the way, and backed away from him. 

Then he brought out a second whip, and with a snap, it also went forward, this time biting at the end of arms, though she barely managed to wrench it out of the way in time. 

And so a dance began, as Izuku brought his whips and scythe forward, Mei dance back, to the sides, up and down, battered away the scythe heads, all while constantly trying to move forward and reach him. 

Then, finally, he caught her. 

One of the still-functioning arms suddenly was impaled with a tooth. 

This time, however, rather than let it disintegrate, he  **wrenched** Mei off her feet and straight towards him. 

His fist connected HARD straight into her face, and he could feel her nose crunch beneath it. 

Then she was flying. 

Like Izuku she almost did go straight over the edge, only to be saved, as her arms dug into the ground.

This time, however, Izuku charged, planning to kick her straight out. 

Mei was helpless, two arms busted, one holding her locked to the ground, while the other- Izuku stopped immediately, then was in the motions to jump back, as a metal ball sailed through the air straight at him. 

Then, as it was still 2 meters away from him, a flash of red. 

And he was  **dead** ! He had  **died** and gone straight to HELL! 

It was  **PAIN** beyond imagination! Beyond anything, the human body and mind was ever meant to comprehend!

His skin was  **flayed** off of his body, and he had been thrown into fire! Hooks dug into every single part of him, and PULLED every sinew apart! 

His lungs were dissected, and every single bone in them was wrenched out with plyers! 

He screamed,  **screamed** ,  **_screamed!_ ** Venom screamed too, a horrible, pitying sound in the back of his head, echoing through his brain!

His eyes were wide open and his eyeballs  **burst** apart! 

His mind was opened up by the hooks, and daggers were shoved straight into-

The pain ceased. 

It took Izuku a moment before his mind comprehended that blessedly the pain was gone. 

He was lying on his side in the middle of the arena, a pool of whimpering black liquid pooled around him, giving him the appearance of lying in a pool of black liquid. 

At that moment, he didn't want to do anything, other than just lie there, and take in that the pain was mercifully gone. 

His body was so, so weak. He just wanted to-

A metal claw snapped around his neck, then wrenched him to his feet, until he was once more face to face with Hatsume Mei. Now the feral face was gone, having settled back to her usual smile. But they eyes… They were still the same. 

"How do you like Eren Midori? I got the idea from Darkseid's agony matrix. It directly stimulates every pain receptor in the target's body. All of them at once, times a thousand. I made it JUST for you, on the off chance I one day ran into yo-"

Izuku stomped his right foot into Mei's left side, with as much force as he possibly could muster without a foothold with the other to anchor himself. 

Mei immediately dropped Izuku, then fell to her side, her arms floundering. 

For a second stood there, having fallen right on his feet. Then the RAGE took him. 

He raised his foot, the  **STOMPED** it straight down into the side Mei was cradling. She immediately went completely limp. 

But he wasn't done there. He bent down and grabbed the metal harness with such force that the metal bent under his fingers. Then, he threw Mei right out of the Arena with such force that she slammed into the wall of the arena, then fell to the ground unconscious. 

At that moment, as he looked at Mei's unconscious body. Izuku felt a level of satisfaction that dwarfed ANY other he had ever felt in his life. 

Then the adrenaline high faded, leaving only pain. Venom, finally managed to push himself together again, and the two of them managed to walk, shaking and quivering all the way out of the arena, and on their way to the infirmary. 


End file.
